§ 5. Colonel DAYasked the Minister of Pensions whether, having regard to the relative stability of the cost of living during the past three years, he will consider the desirability of fixing the rates for disability pensions as those laid down in the warrants and Orders in Council for 1919 and 1920 and so relieve pensioners of any anxiety with regard to a prospective reduction of pension on the review due to take place in 1926?
§ Viscount CURZONI would remind the hon. and gallant Member that the rates of pension at present payable under the Royal Warrants were fixed at a time when the cost of living was considerably higher than it is now. My right hon. Friend sympathises, however, with the object to which the hon. and gallant Member refers in the last part of his question, and it is the intention of the Government to secure, if practicable, a measure of stabilisation of the rates of pension and other benefits provided by the Warrants on equitable lines.
§ 11. Mr. TAYLORasked the Minister of Pensions whether, in cases where the man prior to discharge is found by the military medical board to be suffering from a permanent disability as the result of aggravation caused by service, a permanent pension is awarded if the assessment is more than 20 per cent.; and, if not, whether he will state the practice of the Ministry of Pensions in these cases?
§ Viscount CURZONA man in such a case would not necessarily be given a pension for life. The worsening by service of the man's pre-existing ailment or injury might be temporary only and if it were not found to persist pension could not, under the terms of the Warrant, be continued.
§ Mr. G. SPENCERIs the Noble Lord aware that in a good many cases where the condition of the men is described as only temporary, it is only temporary from the point of view of advantage to the Ministry?
§ Viscount CURZONI will convey those views to my right hon. Friend.