ABSTRACT
As matters stand the industrial injury scheme is semi-detached from the general insurance scheme, and it introduces many discrepancies in the provision for the sick and injured which may have very awkward consequences. Similarly there is no case for paying a young childless widow capable of supporting herself a pension for life if her husband dies of an industrial injury, but only a pension for 13 weeks if he dies of some other injury. But if a man dies from any other cause, there is a pension only for his legal wife. The industrial injury scheme is modelled on war pensions, which are provided for men conscripted for military service, selected by tests of medical fitness, and compulsorily placed in far greater danger than workers in industry. It is justifiable to provide for a narrower range of surviving dependants in the case of industrial casualties, perhaps by retaining the rule that benefit shall be paid to only one adult dependant.
