HC Deb 01 March 1910 vol 14 cc729-30
Mr. J. P. FARRELL

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether any instructions of a special and confidential character had been issued to pension officers in Ireland to set themselves to the task of hunting down old age pensioners and getting them removed off the list in that country; whether any bonus was paid to these officers for the number of persons whom they could get disqualified, and, if so, at what rate; and whether he was prepared to lay upon the Table of the House a copy of the instructions issued to these officers for their guidance in this matter?

The FINANCIAL SECRETARY to the TREASURY (Mr. Hobhouse)

No such instructions have been issued. No such bonus as that referred to has been paid or contemplated. The suggestion, which has been widely circulated, that it has been paid is one which I am informed pension officers have keenly resented, and I am obliged to the hon. Member for affording me an opportunity of contradicting it.

Mr. FARRELL

How is it, although this Act has been fourteen months in operation, that it is only within a comparatively recent period that the activity of those officers has been so keenly shown?

Mr. HOBHOUSE

I am afraid that that is not exactly the fact. They are doing exactly what they did for the last thirteen months.

Mr. CULLINAN

When were the instructions issued to pension officers in Ireland to revise their former decisions on the questions of age and several other points?

Mr. HOBHOUSE

As I have often pointed out to this House, these pension officers give no decisions and therefore they have no power to revise them.

Mr. CULLINAN

That is not my point. I ask whether instructions were issued to the pension officers in Ireland to revise the original decisions arrived at, or at least to investigate the details and report to the Local Government Board the decisions which might be come to?

Mr. HOBHOUSE

There has been no alteration in any of the instructions to the pension officers since February, 1909–one month after the Act came into operation. Since the extreme pressure of getting the first flow of applications through there has been no alteration of the instructions.

Mr. FARRELL

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware of the fact that, though the Act has been fourteen months in operation, only recently a large number of appeals from pension officers have been lodged with the Local Government Board?

Mr. HOBHOUSE

It is natural that there should be appeals as time goes by.

Mr. LARDNER

May I ask if the increase in the number of appeals is due to the fact that pension officers who have not been active in making appeals have been transferred?

Mr. HOBHOUSE

There is no truth in that suggestion at all.

Mr. LARDNER

Will the right hon. Gentleman tell us why there has been so much shuffling among pension officers recently?

Mr. HOBHOUSE

I am not aware of the fact. I will make inquiry.