men have sent their wives into the workhouse for their confinement and then applied for a certificate to obtain the maternity benefit. I also find that certificates have been given to several single women for the same purpose, but I am unable to say for certain whether they have obtained the benefit. The same thing also applies to single persons, without dependents, who have been in our infirmary. Cases needing sanatorium treatment are always referred back to the Commissioners, but we have two cases who are receiving home treatment and the family is in receipt of relief. In one case a man, after waiting nine weeks for admission, was sent for, receiving only two hours' notice, but, as he was a widower with three children, he had to wait a further two days while arrangements were made to take his children into the workhouse, where they remained from February to July without payment. The father returned in May and went to work. In August he re-married, and we have now received another application from him for his admission to the infirmary and his children to the workhouse, as his wife has gone off and left him. He has been told to make another application for sanatorium treatment."
He adds:—
"The giving of 700 certificates must have entailed an enormous amount of labour on the infirmary staff, and when you consider that, in addition, over 500 reports were made for the Pension Authority, it can hardly be said that the Acts have decreased our labour."
The fact that 700 certificates under the Insurance Act have been given in a year in a single Union gives some indication of the extent of the overlapping between the Insurance Act and the Poor Law.
It will be noted that in all these Unions there have been many cases in which women, either married or single, have come into the lying-in wards for their confinement, and have subsequently claimed maternity benefit after their discharge. This is clearly contrary to the intention of the Act, which contemplated that the maternity benefit would be used to provide nourishment
