HC Deb 26 June 1930 vol 240 cc1350-1
50. Mr. O. LEWIS

asked the Minister of Health whether his attention has been called to the fact that, though the late Clifford Sidney Harvey, of Stanway, Essex, who died on 16th December, 1928, paid contributions as an insured person for 11 years and was insured at the time of his death, his widow has been refused a pension; and whether, seeing that the reason for the pension being refused was because the period of insured employment was interrupted by a space of four years during which the deceased was in business on his own account, he will exercise his powers under the Act and cause a pension to be granted to the widow?

Mr. GREENWOOD

The hon. Member is under a misapprehension. I have no power to grant a pension under the Contributory Pensions Acts where the statutory conditions for the award of such a pension are not satisfied.

59. Mr. LEWIS

asked the Minister of Health whether his attention has been called to the fact that Mrs. Kathleen Joyce, of 85, Lisle Road, Colchester, the widow of Albert Edward Joyce, who died on 18th May, 1929, has been unable to obtain a pension in respect of their adopted child despite the fact that the said child was christened in the name of Margaret Joyce at the Garrison Catholic Church, Aldershot, some years before her husband died; and whether he will take steps to cause a pension to be granted in this case under the provisions of the Widows', Orphans' and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act, 1929?

Mr. GREENWOOD

I have looked into the case to which the hon. Member refers, but I find that the child, Margaret Joyce, was not an adopted child within the meaning of the Adoption of Children Act, 1926. In these circumstances, I have no power to award an allowance in respect of the child.