Arnold Nordmeyer was the chair of the 1935 government’s caucus committee that ‘recommended a scheme for a means-tested pension of 30 shillings per week at 60 years of age (more generous than first contemplated) and, at 65, universal superannuation with no means test, beginning at £10 per year (a Nordmeyer suggestion). It also provided for universal medical benefits including hospital treatment, maternity benefits and general practitioner consultations, all to be financed from taxation. At Nordmeyer’s suggestion, the two schemes – health and pensions – were combined in one measure. The recommendations were incorporated in the Social Security Act 1938, which became one of the main issues in that year’s election campaign’.