16. Miss WARDasked the Minister of Pensions whether he is aware that, owing to the restrictions of the royal warrant, the pension allowance that was in issue to Alfred William Hagan, son of the late Gunner Thomas Hagan, No. 35,032, Royal Field Artillery, who died as a result of war service in September, 1923, ceased at the age of 21, although the orphan is a cripple and is consequently unable to contribute in any way to his self-support; and whether, in view of this fact, he will consider amending the royal warrant with the object of ensuring that allowances are continued to totally incapacitated war orphans for so long as such incapacity exists?
§ The MINISTER of PENSIONS (Major Tryon)The hon. Member is perhaps not fully informed as to the facts of this case. The young man's mother is at present in receipt of alternative pension as a widow at a rate which actually gives her the same income as if she were drawing with her flat rate pension an additional allowance for her son. With regard to the last part of the question, I would refer the hon. Member to the answer which I gave to a question from the hon. and gallant Members for 779 Northampton(Sir M Manningham-Buller) and Coventry (Captain Strickland) on 27th ultimo, and to other similar answers of which I am sending her a copy.