FIRE BRIGADE PENSIONS. (Hansard, 26 February 1929)

§ Mr. PALIN

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend Section 18 of the Fire Brigade Pensions Act, 1925. This is a very short, but very important Bill. It consists of two Clauses and its purpose is to amend that Section of the Fire Brigade Pensions Act, which provides for the return of deductions made from firemen's pay in certain cases. The effective part of the Bill reads as follows: Where a professional fireman dies during his period of service the local authority shall pay to his widow, or next of kin, if any, the whole of the rateable deductions which have been made from his pay, together with any sum paid by him in respect of past pensionable service within the meaning of this Act. By an unaccountable oversight, the principal Act, while making provision for the return of contributions in the event of the man dying in the service, made no provision for the return of contributions in the event of the man dying a natural death. It did make provision that past service might be paid for by claiming back contributions to cover that service. Therefore, an injustice arises. I have had one case brought to my notice in which a man has paid as much as £80 to cover past service, but his widow and children were not entitled to draw back one single penny because he died a natural death. I feel sure the House will give leave to introduce a Measure which will rectify this serious oversight.