§ 51. Mr. ERNEST BROWNasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what would be the additional annual cost of old age pensions if the present sliding scale was abolished and the maximum means' limit fixed at £49 17s. 6d., so that all pensioners received the full rate of 10s. per week?
§ Mr. SNOWDENTo provide all persons having means not exceeding 19s. 2d. a week with a pension of 10s. a week would in itself cost about £700,000 a year. But it would clearly be impossible to leave persons having means of 19s. 3d. per week without any pension whatever, so that the proposal would in fact entail a wholesale, reconstruction of the pension system, involving an additional cost of many millions a year.