S.I. No. 310/1948:

SOCIAL WELFARE (GREAT BRITAIN RECIPROCAL ARRANGEMENTS) ORDER, 1948.

SOCIAL WELFARE (GREAT BRITAIN RECIPROCAL ARRANGEMENTS) ORDER, 1948.

WHEREAS by virtue of Section 2 of the Social Welfare (Reciprocal Arrangements) Act, 1948 , the arrangements in respect of matters relating to National Health Insurance set out in the Schedule to this Order have, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, been made by the Minister for Social Welfare with the proper authority of Great Britain :

NOW THEREFORE the Minister for Social Welfare, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by Section 3 of the said Act, hereby orders as follows :

1.--(1) This Order may be cited as the Social Welfare (Great Britain Reciprocal Arrangements) Order, 1948.

(2) This Order shall not come into force unless and until an Order in Council has under Section 64 of the National Insurance Act, 1946, been made in Great Britain for the purpose of giving effect to the arrangements contained in the said Schedule.

2. The provisions contained in the arrangements set out in the said Schedule shall, as from the 5th day of July, 1948, have full force and effect so far as they relate to Ireland, and the National Health Insurance Acts, 1911 to 1948, shall, accordingly, have effect in Ireland, subject to such modifications as may be required in those Acts for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions contained in the said arrangements.

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Minister for Social Welfare this twentieth day of September, Nineteen Hundred and Forty-eight.

WILLIAM NORTON,

Minister for Social Welfare.

SCHEDULE

Agreement relating to Insurance for Sickness Benefit and Maternity Benefit made this the Thirteenth day of September, in the year of Our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Forty-Eight between the Minister of National Insurance of the one part and the Minister for Social Welfare of the other part.

1.--(1) In this Agreement, unless the context otherwise requires--

" the Great Britain Act " means the National Insurance Act, 1946 ;

" the Irish Act " means the National Insurance Act, 1911 ;

" country " means Great Britain or Ireland, as the case may require ;

" sickness benefit " means, as the case may require, sickness benefit under the Great Britain Act or sickness benefit or disablement benefit under the Irish Act together with any cash supplement payable under the Social Welfare Schemes (Cash Supplements) Order, 1947 ;

" maternity benefit " means, as the case may require, maternity benefit under the Irish Act or maternity benefit other than maternity allowance under the Great Britain Act ; and

" contributions of the appropriate class " means contributions (whether under the Great Britain Act or the Irish Act or under any enactment repealed by either of those Acts) having effect for the purposes of sickness benefit or, as the case may be, of maternity benefit.

(2) References in this Agreement to The act in force in a particular country shall be construed as references to the Great Britain Act or the Irish Act, as the case may require.

(3) References in this Agreement to any enactment or order shall include a reference to such enactment or order as amended by any subsequent enactment, order or regulations.

2.--(1) Subject to the provisions of article 3 and of the following paragraphs of this article, where a person insured under the Act in force in one country is on the 5th July, 1948, in the other country or thereafter goes to the other country, that person shall, in respect of any period for which he is in that other country occurring after the said date and before the expiration of six months from the date on which he last arrived in that other country, be treated for the purposes of his right to receive sickness benefit or maternity benefit as if he were in the first mentioned country during that period :

Provided that :--

(a) for the purpose of calculating the said period of six months the temporary absence of a person from Great Britain or Ireland, as the case may be, shall be disregarded and the question whether the absence of a person is or is not to be treated as temporary for the said purpose shall be determined under article 7 ; and

(b) the said Minister of National Insurance or the said Minister for Social Welfare, as the case may be, may extend the said period of six months by not more than seven days in the circumstances of any particular case or class of cases.

(2) This article shall not apply in the case of any such person, being a woman who marries during the said period, as from the date of her marriage.

(3) The rate at which any sickness benefit (apart from any increase) shall be payable to any person by virtue of this article shall not exceed the maximum rate of that benefit (apart from any increase) appropriate to that person under the provisions of the Act in force in the country in which that person is.

(4) In determining, in relation to any person to whom this article applies, the question whether any such person has exhausted his right to sickness benefit under the Great Britain Act, or whether any such person is entitled to disablement benefit under the Irish Act, and, for the purpose of either such question, the number of contributions paid by or in respect of him, any contributions of the appropriate class paid by or in respect of that person for any weeks in a period to which this article applies and which is current at the date when that question arises shall be taken into account.

(5) Subject to the provisions of article 5, this article shall not confer any right to receive an increase of benefit under the Great Britain Act for a child or an adult dependant who is absent from Great Britain.

3. A member of the Defence Forces of Ireland who is insured under the Great Britain Act shall not be entitled to sickness benefit under that Act, and a member of the United Kingdom forces who is insured under the Irish Act shall not be entitled to sickness benefit under that Act, in respect of any period during which he is a member of such forces.

4. Where a person insured under the Act in force in one country is in the other country at the expiration of the period during which the provisions of article 2 applied to him, then for the purpose of sickness benefit and maternity benefit--

(a) the provisions of the Act in force in the first-mentioned country shall cease to apply in his case ; and

(b) in the application to him of the provisions of the Act in force in the other country, insurance, employment, contributions of the appropriate class paid (including such contributions credited or treated as paid) and benefits paid or claimed in the said first-mentioned country shall be treated as if they had been respectively insurance, employment, contributions of the appropriate class paid (including contributions credited or treated as paid) and benefits paid or claimed in that other country :

Provided that, in the case of a person who has been insured under the Irish Act and is in Great Britain, unless and until not less than thirteen such contributions have been paid by or in respect of him under the Great Britain Act since the beginning of the said period, the rate at which any such benefit (including any increase) shall be payable, shall not exceed the rate at which it would have been payable to him at the end of that period under the provisions of the Irish Act.

5. Where the wife or husband of a person insured under the Act in force in one country is in the other country, such wife or husband shall be treated for the purpose of the right of that person to receive an increase of any sickness benefit to which that person may be entitled in respect of a wife or husband as if she or he were in the first-mentioned country.

6. Nothing in this Agreement shall confer a right to double benefit.

7. The said Minister of National Insurance and the said Minister for Social Welfare shall from time to time determine the procedure appropriate for the purposes of this Agreement, and all matters of an incidental and supplementary nature which in their opinion are relevant for the purpose of giving effect thereto.

8. Such financial adjustments between the National Insurance Fund and the Irish National Health Insurance Fund as may be agreed from time to time in connection with this Agreement shall be made by the said Minister of National Insurance and the said Minister for Social Welfare.

9. This Agreement shall have effect from 5th July, 1948, but the said Minister of National Insurance or the said Minister for Social Welfare may terminate it on giving not less than six months previous notice in writing.

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Minister of National Insurance on the day and year first herein appearing.

JAMES GRIFFITHS,

Minister of National Insurance.

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Minister for Social Welfare on the day and year first herein appearing.

WILLIAM NORTON,

Minister for Social Welfare.