§ Major HORE - BELISHAasked the Secretary of State for War if he is aware that the application of Part I, First Schedule, of Army Order 289 of 1920, to officers who are in receipt of non-commissioned pensions has the effect of neutralising to a large extent the small service pensions received by these officers for their previous service in the ranks; and whether he will remove the anomaly under which a ranker officer with a large family is worse off with combined disability retired pay and service pension than he would be if he had received the disability pension of a private soldier, should the assessment in each case be 20 per cent.?
Mr. ROBERTSI have been asked to reply. The scale referred to was drawn so as, on the average, to give better terms to officers of the class referred to at each grade of disability, than they would have got had they continued to serve in the ranks. Exceptional cases in which a large family is involved can be met by supplementary grants from the Special Grants Committee, if the circumstances permit.
§ Major HORE-BELISHAasked the Secretary of State for War if he is aware that a regular soldier, demobilised as a temporary lieutenant, with a non-commissioned service pension of £50 a year and assessed at 100 per cent. for disability, receives with combined pension 1530W and disability retired pay a sum which is £10 a year less than does the temporary officer suffering a similar disability but who served for the duration of the War only; and whether it is the considered policy of the authorities to apply Part I, First Schedule, of Army Order 289 to Army pensioned ranker officers who are in receipt of non-commissioned pensions?
Mr. ROBERTSI have been asked to reply. I would remind the hon. and gallant Member that it is expressly provided by the terms of the Royal Warrant of July, 1920, that an officer shall in no case receive less than the retired pay to which he is entitled under Part I of the First Schedule to that Warrant. A case such as that referred to should not therefore arise.