§ MR. ASHTON (Bedfordshire, Luton)To ask the President of the Local Government Board whether a man seventy years of age otherwise entitled to a pension is debarred from receiving one if his wife is in receipt of parish relief, even if she is in the workhouse or its hospital owing to mental infirmity.
(Answered by Mr. John Burns.) If the wife were in receipt of ordinary poor relief the husband would be disqualified for receiving a pension, but the disqualification would not apply if the relief afforded to the wife were confined to maintenance in an infirmary, or to such medical or surgical assistance as is excluded by the proviso to paragraph, (a) of Section 3 of the Old-Age Pensions Act.