Records of the Establishment Departments, Internal Services, and Regional Organisation

Records of the establishment departments and internal services of the creating bodies, and the regional organisation.

Registered files are in PIN 23, PIN 42, PIN 53, PIN 74, PIN 77 and PIN 81

Records of the Survey Branch are in PIN 27, with those of the Organisation and Methods Division in PIN 28. Codes and manuals of instructions for the administration of pensions and allowances sent to local offices are in PIN 14

Topics

Pay and pensions

Following the creation of the Ministry of National Insurance in 1944, the Services and Establishments Section was initially concerned with the takeover of staff and records from the relevant divisions of the Ministry of Health, the Department of Health for Scotland, the Ministry of Labour and National Service, and the Home Office. Subsequently the section's name was changed to Establishments and Organisation Its responsibilities covered numbers and recruitment of staff and general organisation in various offices around the country. The section comprised five separate divisions, the most notable being the Organisation and Methods Division headed by the Director of Establishments and Organisation. In its early days this division reported on major matters directly to a committee chaired by the Permanent Secretary and consisting of all senior administrative staff. A Finance Division was created to deal with financial aspects of the ministry's administration of welfare provisions. The work of the regional finance officers was supervised at central level by an accountant general to whom the assistant accountant general at the Newcastle Central Office was also directly responsible. Surveys were also carried out on behalf of the Assistance Boards. In 1948 the Survey Branch was set up to carry out surveys, investigations and enquiries in connection with staffing questions. It acted as a research unit for headquarters divisions and co-ordinated and supervised surveys undertaken by regional offices. Information services, including the library, were also the responsibility of the Establishments and Organisation Department.

Following the creation of the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance in 1953, the Establishment and Organisation Department dealt with general staffing policy, organisation and methods and information services (including the library) while Finance Department covered the regional finance officers as well as the central accounts and estimates. Legal Department continued to give advice, to conduct enquiries and to exercise the other functions of the Legal Department of the Ministry of National Insurance. The Medical Department likewise continued to give advice on medical questions.

Much of the work of the Ministry of Pensions was carried out at a local level. In 1919 regional offices were established, and in 1922 area offices were added. In 1923 the regional offices were reduced from eleven to nine, and in 1926 were re-designated areas. There were fourteen of these, then twelve in the late 1930s, each with an office, and there were also seventeen sub-area offices. The Second World War brought a return to a decentralised organisation. The areas were designated regions and given greater administrative responsibility. They numbered ten early in the war, then thirteen, and fifteen in the immediate post-war period, dropping to thirteen again in the early 1950s.

The regional or area offices were responsible for pension administration and medical services. Each chief area or regional officer was in charge of machinery which processed applications, made and issued awards and supplied information, acting as the local agent of the ministry. The officer also formed part of the local War Pensions Committee. The other function of the regional organisation was medical. When the Ministry of National Service ended in 1919 its regional medical services passed to the Ministry of Pensions and continued to arrange medical boards and provide treatment on behalf of the latter ministry. This side of the regional organisation was controlled by deputy commissioners of medical services. The ministry was also responsible for a number of hospitals, clinics and limb-fitting centres including, after the Second World War, hospitals for Polish immigrants administered on behalf of the Ministry of Health. In 1948 welfare officers were appointed to all main offices and hospitals to provide welfare services for the disabled and their families and for the dependants of deceased members of the armed forces, and to discharge the ministry's statutory duties for war orphans.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of National Insurance had its own regional and local organisation. As well as the large Central Office at Newcastle (opened 1946), the ministry had outstationed offices to perform part of the functions of its central organisation. A pensions office was in Blackpool until after the Second World War, and there was an unemployment insurance record office in Acton, west London, and then at Kew, Surrey. Two large offices at Edinburgh and Cardiff were inherited from the Department of Health for Scotland and the Welsh Board of Health respectively, to carry out duties performed by the English regional offices.

The great bulk of the work of the Ministry of National Insurance was carried out in the regions and areas. The regions were headed by controllers, deputy and assistant regional controllers, a senior medical officer and a regional finance officer. Their functions fell into three broad categories: supervision of their own area offices; collection of contributions; and evaluation of claims to benefit. The local offices were responsible for dealing directly with applications for benefit and for arrangements for payment, which was done largely through the Post Office. They were dependent upon records maintained at the central offices. In the transitional period the local offices of the Ministry of Labour and National Service and the Assistance Board were used as agencies until the ministry could establish its own network of offices.

Local appeal bodies were set up to hear appeals against decisions of local insurance officers relating to national insurance and industrial injury benefits. Further appeal was possible to the national insurance commissioner, an eminent lawyer appointed by the Crown. Appeals made in respect of family allowances were heard by special legal referees with provision for reference to the High Court on points of law. Medical questions in respect of industrial injury claims were decided by medical boards, and, on appeal, by the medical appeal tribunals.

Following its creation in 1953, the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance inherited the Blackpool Central Office from the Ministry of Pensions and the Newcastle Central Office from the Ministry of National Insurance. These continued to exercise their previous functions. Blackpool administered war pensions awards and kept pension records; Newcastle dealt with family allowances and national insurance benefits. Both offices had their own finance divisions. The Edinburgh and Cardiff offices of the Ministry of National Insurance continued to function and there were also the regional offices in England and Wales. These, like the Edinburgh and Cardiff offices, were responsible for the co-ordination of the operations of the local national insurance offices, war pension offices and local pension offices. They arranged medical boards in connection with war pensions, sickness benefit and industrial injuries and were responsible for liaison with local advisory committees and tribunals. These consisted of the local advisory committees appointed to advise on the administration of the National Insurance Acts in their localities, local appeal and medical appeal tribunals, and war pensions committees. An advisory medical service was maintained under senior medical officers attached to regional offices. There were also separate regional finance offices responsible to the ministry's Finance Department. War pension offices were also maintained in Northern Ireland, the Irish Republic and Canada.