CLAUSE 6.—(Special provisions as to local government superannuation schemes during periods of emergency.) (Hansard, 23 April 1948)

§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health (Mr. John Edwards)
I beg to move, in page 10, line 13, to leave out "capital."
On reflection, we have concluded that as reductions may also be made in maintenance expenditure, it would be a pity to qualify the word "expenditure" by "capital," and therefore we seek to omit that word.

§ Mr. J. Edwards
I beg to move, in page line 32, to leave out from "employment," to "or," in line 34.
As things stand at present, the extended period of grace which is given to the officers who are dismissed is to be the shorter of the periods: either the five years from the date when the employee leaves his employment, or 12 months after the expiration of the period of emergency. In the Bill the period is defined in Subsection (1) of this Clause, and since the period is not intended to be the whole period of national retrenchment, but the period which the Minister defines under the Subsection during which the adjustment is actually being made, this might be a comparatively short period. We think it would be unreasonable to expect the people concerned to get back into employment within 12 months, so we think it better to give everybody the full period of grace of five years.

§ Mr. Berry (Woolwich, West)
On a point of Order, Mr. Beaumont; may I ask whether you are calling the Amendment in my name?

The Deputy-Chairman
That will be taken at the next stage of the Bill.
Further Amendment made: In page 11, line 43, leave out "has," and insert "had."—[Mr. J. Edwards.]

§ Mr. J. Edwards
I beg to move, in page 12, line 14, at the end, to insert: (5) Where a person to whom this Section applies has again become a contributory employee or local Act contributor under a local authority, then if—

(a) any event occurs by virtue of which a pension would, but for the fact that he has not completed a specied number of years service, be payable to or in respect of him under the Local Government Superannuation Act, 1937, or the local Act scheme; and

(b) he would, if he had not ceased to be such an employee or contributor owing to action taken for emergency purposes, have completed the aforesaid service by the date of the happening of the event,

a pension shall, notwithstanding the fact that he has not completed the aforesaid service, be deemed to be payable to or in respect of him on the happening of the said event and the said Act or scheme shall have effect accordingly. This Amendment rectifies an omission. At the moment, Subsection (4) provides that where a person to whom this provision applies reaches an age while he is still out of local government service at which he would have been able to retire if he had stayed in the service, he will be able to get a pension based on the years which he had actually served before he retired. This was designed to meet the obvious cases of difficulty of people who might be dismissed in the late 50's and who would not be able to get back within the time. However, it has the effect of allowing these persons to reckon their period out of local government service as a qualifying period in reckoning eligibility for benefit, but not in reckoning its amount. As the Clause stands, there is no such provision in the case of someone who returns to local government, and this new subsection proposes to repair that omission. Putting it in another way, we do not want anomalies between those who do and those who do not get back into local government service, and this remedies the risk of such an anomaly arising.