§ Mr. SNOWDENasked if the chairman of the Worcester County Council Old Age Pension Committee requires a police certificate with each claim for a pension, 1044 stating whether the applicant has been in gaol during the previous ten years; and if this is a practice sanctioned by the Local Government Board?
§ Mr. BURNSI am making inquiries as to the practice of the pension committee and will communicate with my hon. Friend.
§ Mr. SNOWDENasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury if the pension officers were under the direction of the pension committees and had to obey the directions of these committees?
§ The FINANCIAL SECRETARY to the TREASURY (Mr. Hobhouse)The answer to both parts of the question is in the negative.
§ Mr. SNOWDENIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the chairman of the Worcester County Council Pension Committee did give these instructions to the pension officer and is he aware that they were confirmed by the Board of Inland Revenue.
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEI do not quite know what the hon. Gentleman is referring to. If he will give me the details I will make inquiries.
§ Mr. HUGH LAWasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that a number of claims are being made in Ireland by the Customs and Excise Departments for repayment of old age pensions in cases where no fraud is alleged to have taken place and where pensions were originally granted by pension committees with the concurrence of the pension officers, and paid for many months without question; whether it was the duty of the pension officers to have satisfied themselves before the pensions were granted as to the age of applicants, and to have appealed immediately to the central pension authority; and whether, seeing that the error, if any, in these cases was shared by the officers of the Inland Revenue Department, he will direct that no further steps shall be taken to prosecute the claims for repayment, except in cases where there is clear evidence of an intention to defraud?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEIf the hon. Member will supply me with the particulars of any cases in which serious hardship has arisen by demands such as those referred to, I will have inquiry made into them.
§ Mr. HUGH LAWasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury if he can state the reason of the delay in issuing a pension order book to James M'Bride, Gleneragh, Glin, county Donegal, to whom the local committee, whose decision was upheld by the Local Government Board acting on appeal by the pension officer, granted a pension as from 5th December last?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThere is a debt due to the Crown from the pensioner under Section 9 (2) of the Old Age Pensions Act in respect of pension money drawn prior to his having reached the statutory age of seventy, and the new pension is being withheld until the debt is liquidated by deduction.
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEUnder Section 9 (2).