Mr. WORTHINGTON-EVANSasked the President of the Local Government Board whether British nationality can be presumed in the case of a man aged seventy-seven, who served in the British 1929 German Legion in the Crimea, and who can be proved to have settled in England immediately after the war, and to have been in the employ of the same firm for the last forty-five years in England; and whether the refusal of an old age pension on the sole ground of failure to prove British nationality will be re-considered?
§ Mr. LEWISI am advised that British nationality cannot legally be presumed in cases of the kind referred to. I may say that it is one of the statutory requirements of the Old Age Pensions Act that a person must satisfy the pension authorities that he has been a British subject for at least twenty years, and I am not empowered to dispense with any such requirement.
Mr. WORTHINGTON-EVANSIf the facts in this question are correct, the man who is an applicant for the pension has been resident in England, and has been in the same employ for forty-five years, which is in excess of the statutory period?
§ Mr. SNOWDENasked if, after the Poor Law disqualification in the Old Age Pension Act has ceased to operate, the receipt of poor relief by a wife under seventy years of age will disqualify the husband over seventy, and in all other respects eligible for a pension, for the receipt of an old age pension on the ground that he is in receipt of poor relief through his wife, or vice versâ, if the positions of the husband and wife were reversed?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEThe expiry of the disqualification in respect of past receipt of poor relief on 31st December next will operate to remove the disqualification (where it at present exists) in the cases to which the hon. Member refers, if and when the actual receipt of the disqualifying relief ceases. Otherwise, in the absence of an amendment of the Old Age Pensions Act, there will be no change in the present position. The point is, however, one which will receive careful consideration when an opportunity arises for the introduction of a Bill to amend the Act.
§ Mr. KEIR HARDIEIn the case of the pension not amounting to 5s. a week and the Poor Law guardians making it up to that sum, will that be a disqualification?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEThat, I gather, is one of the points that will have to be considered.
§ Mr. SNOWDENDo we understand that next year, in the case of a man who had received Poor Law relief but otherwise was eligible for an old age pension he will be barred if his wife, she being under seventy years of age, continues to receive relief?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEI think an amendment of the law may be required in that respect. If there is any doubt we will make it clear in the Act that there is no intention to disqualify in such a case.