HC Deb 22 March 1897 vol 47 cc1109-10
MR. T. G. ASHTON (Beds,) Luton

I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether the information in the possession of the Local Government Board shows that the contributions from salaries of Poor Law Officers under the Poor Law Officers' Superannuation Act, 1896, will suffice, or almost suffice, to pay the pensions under the Act; whether his attention has been called to the calculations made by Mr. Thomas Fatkin, an expert, at the request of the Leeds Board of Guardians, and adopted by them on 13th January last, which calculations show that the contributions of the officers will barely suffice to pay one-third of the cost of the pensions under the Act; and whether, having regard to the fact that a Bill is before the House to extend the provisions of the Act to the officers and servants of other local authorities, he will consider the advisability of having actuarial calculations made out to determine what proportion of the cost of the pensions is likely to fall oil the ratepayers in the event of the Bill becoming law?

THE SECRETARY TO THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. T. W. RUSSELL,) Tyrone, S.

The Local Government Board have no definite information as to how far the contributions from salaries of Poor Law officers under the Poor Law Officers' Superannuation Act, will suffice to pay the allowances under that Act. But it is to be borne in mind that in the great majority of cases of officers to which the Act refers, the Guardians, prior to the passing of the Act, were empowered to award superannuation without any contributions from the officers. The Act has conferred upon the officers the right to a superannuation, instead of its being optional with the Guardians to grant superannuation as was previously the case as regards all officers who devoted their whole time to their duties, it being at the same time made obligatory on the officers to whom the Act applies to contribute a percentage of their salaries towards the cost of superannuation. The Board have seen the communication which Mr. Fatkin has addressed to the Leeds Board of Guardians, but cannot undertake to have made the actuarial calculations suggested in the last question, and, looking to the thousands of authorities to which the Bill refers, the Local Government Board do not think there are any data on which any actuarial calculations which could be relied upon could be made.