War Disability Pensions

HC Deb 14 October 1946 vol 427 cc609-10

52. Mr. Birch

asked the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster why German war disability pensions have been discontinued or reduced.

Mr. J. Hynd

These pensions have now been assimilated into the normal system of social insurance pensions in Germany. They were abolished as military pensions by quadripartite decision, first, because their continuation involved the maintenance of military service records which, in the interest of total dispersal of the German Armed Forces, it was deemed desirable to destroy; secondly, because it is inequitable that disabled Wehrmacht pensioners should receive greater benefits than other disabled persons; and thirdly, because benefits were on a scale that Germany could not in present conditions afford. The scale of benefits is subject to review, and consultations are now proceeding with the German Advisory Council in our zone.