§ SIR JOHN LENG (Dundee)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether the payments to pensioners in the lower grades of the Civil Service can be deposited for their benefit in the nearest Post Office Savings Bank, so that they may be drawn more frequently than once in three months, as at present?
MR. HANBURTThe hon. Member is mistaken in thinking that Civil Service pensioners are unable at present to draw their pensions more frequently than once in three months. The option is allowed to all such pensioners of being paid either monthly or quarterly; and I understand that about 75 per cent. of them avail themselves of the power to receive their pensions monthly. The Post Office 272 Savings Banks are intended to facilitate saving, not to be used as a channel for payment. Besides adding greatly to the work of the Paymaster General's Department, the method of payment suggested in the Question would impose additional expenditure upon the Savings Banks Fund, to the prejudice of the depositors for whose benefit the banks exist.