13. Sir Reginald flurryasked the Minister of Health whether the payment of old age pensions is automatically stopped on the applicant appealing for aid to the Public Assistance Board; what other circumstances entail a similar stoppage of pension; and whether the payment is maintained to the applicant or the institution when the pensioner enters a mental home or similar institution?
§ Mr. E. BrownThe answer to the first part of the Question is "No, Sir," but an old age pension is not payable during the maintenance of a pensioner in a Poor Law institution, unless he has become an inmate for the purpose of receiving medical treatment, in which case there is no automatic disqualification so long as treatment is required. As regards the second part of the Question, an old age pension is not payable during imprisonment without the option of a fine, or during maintenance as a criminal lunatic. As regards the third part, a non-contributory old age pension is not payable to or in respect of a person who is being maintained as a rate-aided person of unsound mind or is being detained in a mental hospital; this disqualification does not operate where the pension is a contributory one.