INSURANCE—NATIONAL AND PRIVATE
SIR,—I expected that the Ministry of National jnsurance would try to shift the onus for its conduct upon my mother or her representatives, but not that its Chief Information Officer would parade as " the facts of the case " what are very far from being so, and on the basis of mis- statements imply a wholly unmerited rebuke. The first intimation to the Ministry of my father's death was not in the letter of August 9th from my mother's solicitors, but in a letter written and posted by me on April 30th, viz., four days after the event. The solicitors were approached only when it became clear that no acknowledgement was likely either of this letter or of a follow-up sent in mid-June. My mother has always been aware of my father's insurance as a voluntary contributor ; the solicitors knew this, and they assure me that the statement Mr. Hoare attributes to them was never made. Indeed, since my mother herself handed the solicitors the stamped card which accompanied their letter, the statement is palpably ridiculous. I am not surprised that the letter " appears to have gone astray "—with, doubtless, my own two letters.
On Mr. Hoare's own showing, the Ministry did absolutely nothing between August and mid-October, when the solicitors wrote again. Thereafter, admittedly, the solicitors were dilatory. But a completed claim form was submitted on November 30th—and again the Ministry did nothing for two months. Eventually, on January 31st, I reintervened with a letter to the Minister personally, and when this, too, was ignored I sought the hospitality of the Spectator.
Your courtesy, Sir, secured the action so long overdue, and on February 15th my mother received a cheque for most, though not all, of the arrears. Meanwhile, on February 12th, I received a letter from the Ministry's Newcastle office to which I trust Mr. Hoare will direct his attention. Briefly, this promised my mother her pension order book " at a very early date " and me " a full explanation of the circumstances which have caused the delay." More than a fortnight later, neither of us has heard further. My mother, without her book, must forgo current payments, and I am obliged to occupy my time and your space to deal with dis- tortions that add insult to injury. Treatment of this sort throws con- siderable doubt upon Mr. Hoare's assertion that the " average time for putting widow's allowance into payment is now two and a half weeks " (or have I at least stirred up settlement of other peoples' dues ?). And when on top of it all he adjures insured persons to " play their part," I am impelled to retort that it is not only charity that should begin at
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