23 JULY 1948, Page 5

The interest people in general are displaying in the new

National , Insurance provisions is remarkable. From the appointed day, July 5th, enquiries, I am told, have been pouring in in incredible volume. It might be supposed that holidaymakers would leave all that till they got home. But not at all. Take Sidmouth, for example. The Ministry of National Insurance has opened a small office there with a staff of four. In the first week they had to deal with z,000 callers, seventy per cent. of them non-residents. It is partly, no doubt, a very reasonable desire to know what the contribution is going to produce in the way of benefits. However that may be, so much interest in the new system is all to the good.

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