HC Deb 31 May 1949 vol 465 cc1931-2

4.30 p.m.

Mr. Glenvil Hall

I beg to move, in page 42, line 1, at the beginning, to insert: (1) The following provisions of the Pensions (Increase) Act, 1947, that is to say—

  1. (a) subsection (2) of section three (which prevents a pension being increased where the amount of the pension is determined by reference to a rate of emoluments received on or after the first day of April, nineteen hundred and forty-seven, or by reference to an average rate of emolument received over a period of service beginning on or after the first day of April, nineteen hundred and forty-six);
  2. (b) subsection (3) of the said section three (which requires any increase of pension to be reduced where the amount of the pension is determined by reference to an average rate of emoluments received over a period of service beginning before the first day of April, nineteen hundred and forty-six, but ending after that date),
shall not apply to a superannuation allowance computed upon the amount mentioned in paragraph (a) of subsection (2) of section thirty-six of this Act unless they would have applied thereto had it been computed upon the amount mentioned in paragraph (b) thereof. (2) Where subsection (3) of section three of the Pensions (Increase) Act, 1947 (as modified by the preceding subsection) applies to a superannuation allowance computed upon the amount mentioned in paragraph (a) of subsection (2) of section thirty-six of this Act, the period of service by reference to which the amount mentioned in the said paragraph (a) is determined shall be deemed for the purposes of the said subsection (3) to have begun and ended on the same dates as the period of service which would have been relevant if the superannuation allowance had been computed upon the amount mentioned in paragraph (b) of subsection (2) of the said section thirty-six. (3) Notwithstanding anything in subsection (2) of section three of the Pensions (Increase) Act, 1944 (which requires increases otherwise payable under that Act to be withheld or reduced in the case of pensions increased in consequence of war bonus or similar payments) a superannuation allowance computed upon the amount mentioned in paragraph (a) of subsection (2) of section thirty-six of this Act may be increased under the Pensions (Increase) Acts, 1944 and 1947, to an amount not exceeding the amount to which that allowance could have been increased in accordance with the provisions of those Acts and subsection (3) of section sixty of this Act, if it had been computed upon the amount mentioned in paragraph (b) of subsection (2) of the said section thirty-six. The object of this Amendment is to prevent a re-engaged pensioner who is due to gain extra pension under Clause 36 finding that it is swallowed up in a loss of the pensions increase awarded to him on his original pension. Subsection (6) of Clause 36, now transferred to this Clause, has already dealt with one of the provisions in the Pensions (Increase) Acts which had to be dealt with to prevent this anomaly. The remaining provisions in this rather long Amendment deal with other provisions of the Pension (Increase) Acts which investigation has shown also need to be taken into account. Generally this Amendment safeguards the position of pensioners who have received increases under the 1944 and 1947 Acts.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.