§ MR. THORNE (West Ham, S.)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he is aware that in January last a senior assistant clerk, of uniformly good character, was compelled to resign from his Department in consequence of paralysis of the brain, rendering him incapable for life of following any employment whatever; that, owing to the deduction on account of pension of half his unestablished service rendered as a writer, he has, after thirty-one years continuous clerical service, been awarded a pension amounting to only about 16s. per week; and whether, seeing that under Section 3 of the Superannuation Act of 1887, it was within the power of the Treasury to grant this officer the benefit of the whole of his continuous service which merged into established service, and in view of the fact that this officer's duties in both his unestablished 1100 and established capacities were exactly similar, he will take steps to secure a revision of the pension and the calculation thereof on the basis of entire service, as is done in the case of Customs boatmen, established messengers, and certain other classes whose temporary service is followed by established service.
§ MR. RUNCIMANThe decision of the Treasury was in accordance with their invariable practice in calculating the pensions of assistant clerks or abstractors, who have previously been temporary copyists, and I regret that, notwithstanding the distressing circumstances of this case, it is not possible to make it an exception. For the reason why in these cases only half the temporary service is reckoned for pension I may refer the hon. Member to the Answers given by my predecessor to similar Questions on 26th March and 17th May, 1906.†
§ MR. CROOKS (Woolwich)Is it not possible for the Treasury to grant a compassionate allowance in a case like this?
§ MR. RUNCIMANI fear it is not.