§ Mr. ARTHUR LYNCHasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he was aware that it was the practice, where a pension officer had appealed against a pension which had already been granted and for which payments had begun, to suspend payment until the appeal had been determined; whether, seeing that the pension had become in such cases a charge upon the public funds, he would say under what statutory or other authority this payment became suspended by an administrative Act?
§ The FINANCIAL SECRETARY to the TREASURY (Mr. Hobhouse)Under Section (7) (1) (c) of the Old Age Pensions Act the allowance of a claim by a pension committee is, in the event of an appeal being made against it, not operative, but the claim stands referred to the central pension authority, and no pension can commence to accrue under Section 5 (2) of the Act until it has been allowed by that authority. In such cases the pension does not become a charge upon public funds until the appeal has been determined, and any payment made before notice of appeal was given is to be deemed to be a payment made in error.