§ 53. Mr. Leachasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether he has considered the copy sent to him of a resolution of the Eastbourne Pensions Committee, and supported by other committees, asking for a reform of the old age pensions law so as to provide a fairer method of calculating the means of persons who have been inmates of Poor Law institutions or mental hospitals; and whether he is prepared to comply with the wishes so expressed?
§ The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Lieut.-Colonel Colville)The resolution to which the hon. Member refers is presumably that which asked that the cost of maintenance should be excluded in calculating the means of a pensioner who is in a Poor Law institution for medical or surgical treatment and that the disqualification in certain circumstances from receipt of pension of a person in a mental hospital should be removed and the cost of his maintenance there disregarded in calculating his pension. This would have the effect of giving the pensioner free maintenance as well as a pension calculated on the basis that he is maintaining himself; and in so far as the pension is appropriated by the local authority, it would operate merely as a grant in aid of local expenditure. I am afraid, therefore, that the Government are not prepared to introduce the legislation which would be necessary to effect these changes.
§ Mr. LeachIs it not reasonably argued that old age pensioners who need medical or mental treatment of this sort are in such poor conditions and circumstances that they should have this concession made by the Government?
§ Lieut.-Colonel ColvilleI have given the hon. Member a long and careful answer, and I am afraid that I cannot add to it.