HC Deb 15 November 1911 vol 31 cc371-2
Mr. HICKS BEACH

asked the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been called to the fact that old age pensioners are being admitted to union hospitals and maintained and treated therein at the cost of local rates, and are at the same time considered eligible to receive the old age pension, which is either allowed to accumulate to be drawn on discharge from the institution or is paid to some person by authority of the pensioners, such person being allowed, with the pensioner's consent, to appropriate the pension to his own use and benefit; and whether he will introduce legislation to provide that persons shall not be eligible to receive the pension during any period in which they are being wholly maintained at the cost of local rates in a Poor Law institution, or that the guardians shall be empowered to appropriate the pension in part payment of maintenance?

Mr. McKINNON WOOD

Under the Statutory Regulations issued under the Old Age Pension Acts, an agent, who must be definitely appointed by the pensioner, and may be an officer of the guardians, can only draw the pension on a written undertaking to pay the amount to the pensioner forthwith, and, under Section 16 of the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1849, guardians have considerable powers of recovering the cost of relief of the kind referred to from moneys coming into the possession of the recipient while in the infirmary. The class of cases to which the hon. Member refers is in any case not a numerous one, and in the circumstances explained does not appear to me to present much difficulty except in cases where the pension is allowed to accumulate pending discharge, and this difficulty has been met to some extent by the provisions of Section 5 (b) of the Old Age Pensions Act of this year, making it impossible so to accumulate a pension for a period of more than three months. The question was considered in connection with the preparation of the Old Age Pensions Bill introduced by my predecessor earlier in this Session, when it was decided to take no action, and I regret that I am not now prepared to introduce legislation on the lines suggested in the last part of the question.