§ 6. Sir WALTER de FRECEasked the Minister of Pensions whether he is aware of the public dissatisfaction at the long time taken to clear up and decide some applications for pensions; whether some of these remain as long as six months under official consideration; and whether, in view of the suffering that these methods often entail to the dependants, he will take steps to have these applications disposed of with greater dispatch?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONI can assure my hon. Friend that every effort is made to deal expeditiously with all applications for pension. He will, however, recognise that, in cases where the application is made long after discharge, the collection and examination of evidence is a matter of some difficulty, involving a certain amount of inevitable delay. I may add that the machinery for dealing with these claims has been under investigation by the Departmental Committee, whose report I am expecting at an early date.