§ 42. Mr. Padleyasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer why Mr. J. W. Henderson, 22, James Road, Blaengarw, was deprived of tobacco relief coupons for eight weeks when, through no fault of his own, the issue of his pension book was delayed.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterAs I have already told the hon. Member, it is, I am afraid, not possible to issue tobacco duty relief coupons to a pensioner until he produces his pension order book at the Post Office.
§ Mr. PadleyIs the hon. Gentleman aware that on 13th February I received a letter from the Minister of National Insurance handsomely apologising to my constituent for the failure to issue the pension book? Is he aware that ordinary mortals find it difficult to understand why when one Ministry admits responsibility for failure to issue a pension book at the correct date, another Ministry, the Treasury, refuses to grant the concession decided upon by the House? Is there no method whereby the great brain power of the Civil Service can solve this relatively simple administrative problem?
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterI have been into this matter, about which the hon. Gentleman was good enough to write to me. As I have already explained, the trouble is that it is necessary to produce the pension book for the coupons to be issued. That is an essential part of the scheme, which was introduced not by this Government but by their predecessors.
§ Mr. SimmonsIs this a sample of the kind of treatment ex-Service men will get when the Ministries are amalgamated?
§ Mr. PagetWhen the Government have acknowledged that it was their fault that the man did not have the pension book, surely they can pay out 10s.?
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterIf the hon. and learned Gentleman knew anything about the scheme, he would know that it involved not the paying out of 10s. but the issuing of a book of coupons.