§ SIR JAMES RANKIN (Herefordshire, Leominster)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether he would take into consideration the question of revising the scale of payments for immediate annuities payable to persons above the age of eighty years, so that persons above that age should be able to obtain a reduction in the cost of an annuity corresponding to their more advanced age.
§ MR. HANBURYThe matter is not one for the Post Office, but for the National Debt Commissioners. I can add nothing to the answer given to a similar question by my right hon. friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer on May 10, 1897,* which ran as follows—
Very few complaints have reached either the Post Office or the National Debt Commissioners with regard to the point to whichSee The Parliamentary Debates [Fourth Series], Vol. xlix., page 104.50attention is called in the question. I will consider the matter, but I cannot undertake to amend the table of annuities in the manner desired. There is a difficulty about securing proof as to the age of very old people, and I am told that the chances of life are not diminished in proportion to the difference between the ages of 80 and 85. I understand that insurance companies find similar precautions necessary to prevent loss on annuities at these great ages.