Catalogue description Records of the National Insurance appeals machinery

The Office of the Umpire was established following the National Insurance Act 1911. This Act set up machinery for determining whether the statutory conditions for claims to unemployment benefit were fulfilled, or continued to be fulfilled, or whether a worker was disqualified from benefit. In the first instance the worker was to go before an insurance officer appointed by the Board of Trade, and then, if as a result benefit was stopped or reduced, before a Court of Referees consisting of one representative of the employers, one of the workers, and the third, an impartial member, appointed by the Board of Trade. If the insurance officer and the Court of Referees disagreed in their decisions, the case was heard by the Umpire, an official appointed by the Crown.

From 1911 until 1917 the Office of the Umpire worked in conjunction with the Labour Departments of the Board of Trade. From 1917 it worked with the Ministry of Labour, first with the Employment Departments, and from 1929 with the Unemployment Insurance Departments. Until 1920 the Court heard appeals under unemployment insurance schemes; these were then brought into line with appeals under national health insurance schemes. The Umpire's principal concern, however, remained the hearing of appeals in the field of unemployment benefit under the National Insurance Act 1911 and subsequent legislation relating to national insurance.

In 1944 the Ministry of National Insurance was constituted. The principles underlying the machinery established under the National Insurance Act 1911 for determining the validity or amount of claims to benefit under the National Insurance and National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Acts, whereby appeals from the decisions of insurance officers of the Department went to a Court of Referees and thence to the Office of the Umpire, were maintained on the establishment of the Ministry of National Insurance, but the appeal bodies themselves were reconstituted in 1947. The Courts of Referees were then replaced by Local Tribunals comprising a chairperson (normally a lawyer), and a representative of the employer and the employee. Final appeal was transferred from the Umpire to the National Insurance Commissioner or one of his deputies, who were all appointed on the recommendation of the Lord Chancellor. The Umpire acted as Commissioner for a short time, but the two offices were then split in 1947. The Umpire now continued as an independent statutory authority appointed by the Crown to exercise functions which had passed to him during and after the Second World War, hearing appeals under the Reinstatement in Civil Employment Act 1944 and the National Service (Miscellaneous) Regulations 1948.

The Office of the Umpire was wound up in 1976.