HC Deb 25 October 1916 vol 86 cc1118-9
43. Mr. MacCALLUM SCOTT

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the arrangement for paying to all Civil servants who are serving in the Army a proportion of their salary sufficient to make their Army pay and allowances up to the level of their former civil pay applies also to the war bonus, or whether the war bonus is paid only in the case of Civil servants who are married and, if so, will he state on what principle a distinction is drawn between a married man who has no children and whose wife is earning a separate income in the employment of the Government and a single man who is the sole support of his invalid mother, to the disadvantage of the latter?

The FINANCIAL SECRETARY to the TREASURY (Mr. McKinnon Wood)

The arrangements governing the grant of civil pay to Civil servants serving in His Majesty's Forces do not extend to the payment of a war bonus. The award of the Post Office arbitration provided, however, that the bonus should be included in the calculation of civil pay in the case of married men and the same concession was accordingly allowed to the Civil Service generally. I understand that the distinction drawn between married men and single men with dependants has not, in fact, given rise to difficulties.

Mr. MacCALLUM SCOTT

Is it not the case that there is a number of men drawing this war bonus who are married but have no children, and whose wives are earning good pay, whereas there is a number of single men who have mothers and sisters dependent on them who do not get this bonus?

Mr. McKINNON WOOD

Yes, I think that is very likely, but you cannot provide for every single case.

Mr. MacCALLUM SCOTT

Is not the proper basis of distinction the number of a man's dependants and not the irrelevant consideration whether he is married or not?

Mr. McKINNON WOOD

I should have thought that was very relevant, but it is quite impossible to draw distinctions of that sort when you are dealing with thousands of people, and, after all, the war bonus is really a concession, and is not a thing which could have been claimed as a right.