§ 48. Mr. LOUGHasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his attention has been called to the great advantage of enabling women who are now earning exceptional wages to provide for their older years by purchasing deferred annuities to commence when they are sixty; whether the National Debt Commissioners, though they have issued a new table of immediate annuities, refuse to issue deferred annuities and thus to encourage this very desirable method of war saving; whether he has considered the advantage of the deferred annuity as against the immediate annuity from the point of view of the State, inasmuch as lives cannot be so effectually selected as against the State when the annuity is not to commence for a considerable period; and whether he will consider the issue through the Post Office of deferred annuities calculated on the 4½per cent. or 5 per cent. tables, the annuity to be paid in weekly instalments in the manner as old age pensions?
§ The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER (Mr. Bonar Law)The granting of deferred annuities was discontinued in 1913 because prolonged experience showed that there was little demand for this class of annuity. Somewhat different considerations apply to this question under existing conditions, and I am making further inquiries.