[Footnote 119:  The Tailor, Vol. 8, No. 1, p. 16.]

The unions which have adopted the benefit have all experienced difficulty in safeguarding it against fraudulent claims.  They usually require, for eligibility to the benefit, that the wife be not in ill health at the time the member is admitted to the union.  In the unions which have had the benefit longest in operation it has been found possible materially to lessen the number of claims for the wife’s benefit after some experience in its operation.

The following table shows the percentage of claims paid by the Painters for wife’s and member’s death benefits for a series of biennial periods: 

====================================
| Percentage | Percentage
| of Wife’s  | of Member’s
Year.   | Death      | Death
| Benefits.  | Benefits.
------------------------------------
1889-1890 | 49.1       | 50.9
1890-1892 | 43.5       | 56.5
1892-1894 | 45         | 55
1894-1896 | 37.5       | 62.5
1896-1900 | 35.3       | 64.7
1900-1902 | 32.5       | 67.5
1902-1904 | 32.6       | 67.4
------------------------------------

It will be observed that the ratio of the number of wife’s funeral benefits to the number of member’s funeral benefits has steadily fallen for a considerable number of years.  The experience of the Painters is probably typical, although the number of claims of each kind is not ascertainable in the other unions.

The combination of the wife’s funeral benefit with the death benefit causes a material addition in the cost of the death benefit.  This increase is greatest in those unions in which the wife’s benefit is relatively large in amount.  The following table shows the sums paid for member’s and wife’s death benefits in three of the more important unions: 

Sums paid for wife’s and member’s death benefits.
============================================================
==========
              | |Wife’s Death Benefit.|Member’s Death Benefit.
              | |---------------------------------------------
              | | |Percentage| |Percentage
  Union. | Year. | |of Whole | |of Whole
              | |Expended. |Sum | Expended. |Sum
              | | |Expended | |Expended
              | | |for Death | |for Death
              | | |Benefits. | |Benefits.
------------------------------------------------------------
----------
Painters |1888-1889|$ 650.00| | |
              |1889-1890| 1,075.00| 26.8 |$ 2,894.00| 73.2
              |1890-1892| 2,075.00| 23.1 | 6,000.00| 76.9
              |1892-1894| 3,912.00| 27.7 | 10,548.00| 72.3
              |1894-1896| 550.00| 19.1 | 2,319.00| 80.9