HC Deb 16 August 1916 vol 85 cc1841-2
83. Mr. BOWERMAN

asked the President of the Local Government Board if his attention has been called to two cases recently before the Wallasey Tribunal, in which the appellants stated that their claims to the Civil Liabilities Committee for a weekly sum to cover rent, rates, and insurance had been refused, whereupon the tribunal unanimously refused to pass the men into the Army, advising the men to renew their claims for financial relief, and the military representative to bring pressure to bear upon the Committee; and if he will state the Committee's reasons for referring these workmen to the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association instead of giving them the relief that they understood they were entitled to receive direct from the Committee?

Mr. LONG

I have seen a newspaper report of the action of the tribunal and have already taken steps to correct the misapprehension which has arisen. As my right hon. Friend stated on the 24th July, in reply to a question by the hon. Member for the Harborough Division, in cases in which no grant can be given under the Civil Liabilities Scheme the applicants are referred to the local War Pensions Committee or to the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association, who are acting temporarily as agents for the Statutory Committee in districts where the local committees have not yet been formed. In both cases the grants are made out of public funds and not from charitable sources.