§ Mr. BIRDasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if there is a condition attached to Post Office annuities that should the annuitant die before the date when the current half-year's amount is payable then the proportion accrued to the day of the annuitant's death is withheld from his or her heirs and appropriated by the Treasury?
§ The FINANCIAL SECRETARY to the TREASURY (Mr. McKinnon Wood)The Acts under Which the Post Office life annuities are granted expressly stipulate that on the death of an annuitant one-fourth part of the annuity depending upon the life of such annuitant shall be payable to the person or persons entitled to such annuity or his or her legal representative. The effect of this provision is is that a quarter's payment is made in respect of the broken period from the last half-yearly payment to death, however long or short that period. As the length of such broken period will on average be one quarter, the result is that on average there is neither loss nor gain to the Post Office.