§ MR. WEIRI beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that a retired officer, aged say 50, desirous of commuting £100 of his pension, would under the Tables of the Pensions Commutation Board, be entitled to receive only £1,121. 7s. 1d., while, should he be desirous of purchasing from the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt an annuity of £100 per annum, he would have to pay £1,583. 10s. 6d., a difference between buying and selling of £463. 3s. 5d.; and whether he will re-consider his decision as to the expediency of taking such steps as will admit of the Tables of the Pensions Commutation Board being 29 placed more in accord with the present value of money, especially having regard to the fact that they were promulgated immediately after the passing of the Pensions Commutation Act of 1871, when Three Per Cent. Consols stood at 923/4, and have not been once revived?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Sir MICHAEL HICKS BEACH,) Bristol, W.The difference between the prices at which a pension can be commuted and a Government Life Annuity bought is not so great as the hon. Member supposes. Some considerable difference in two such cases is inevitable; because the average life of persons who commute their pensions would he as a rule considerably less than that of those who buy a Life Annuity. I do not propose to alter the law.