§ 34. Mr. ROSEasked the Minister of Labour if, in view of the hardship to ex-service pensioners involved in the issue and operation of Circular 82/22, which authorises rota committees to take into account the amount of war pensions when considering claims for extended benefit, and of the public representations which have been made to him, he will reconsider the matter, with a view to its withdrawal?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDThe decision embodied in the Circular referred to is the result of careful and sympathetic consideration, and in my opinion adequately meets the situation. I do not think it causes any hardship.
§ Mr. ROSEAre we to understand that this callous outrage is to be assisted in by the Ministry of Labour.
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDThe hon. Member must not take me as at all agreeing with the description that it is a callous outrage; it is quite the contrary. What has happened has been that there has been a concession. The former practice, I understand, was that the pension of any member of the family was taken into account, but now only the pension of the person himself is taken into account, and those of other members of the family are excluded. Therefore, so far from its being a callous outrage, it has been an attempt to meet that situation more sympathetically, and I think that, in the circumstances, it is a fair result.
§ Mr. ROSEIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the pensions of relatives have been taken into account by rota committees, and is he not; conscious that the counting-in of pensions as against unemployment benefit is fundamentally a wrong and an injustice anyhow, seeing that a man who has a pension has earned it?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDI understand that the practice was based on principles which existed long before my time, and that, under the regulations based on previous principles, the practice—not on any instructions from me—was to take into account every member of the family. My attention was called to that, and I though that on the whole it was not a proper thing to do, but that it would be fair, in regard to a particular person, to take into account what pension he himself might be obtaining, but that it would not be fair, in a case like that, to take into account the pensions of other members of the family. I issued a regulation, therefore, asking that rota committees should disregard pensions drawn by other members of the family.
§ Mr. ROSEOwing to the unsatisfactory character of the right hon. Gentleman's answer, I beg to give notice that on the first available opportunity I shall raise this question on the Motion for the Adjournment of the House.