§ 5. Mr. K. Robinsonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer why the Board of Customs and Excise will not issue tobacco tokens to a retirement pensioner on the authority of a certificate from the 571 Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance, stating that the claimant, though not in possesion of a pension order book, is in receipt of a retirement pension.
§ Mr. H. BrookeThe Tobacco Duty (Relief for Pensioners) Regulations, 1947, made by the previous Administration confines the relief to pensioners who are drawing their pensions by means of a pension order book. As my predecessors under both Governments have more than once explained to the House, the administrative obstacles to extending the relief to pensioners whose pensions are paid otherwise are decisive.
§ Mr. RobinsonWill the hon. Gentleman look again at this matter, because it seems incredible that no administrative means can be found to make this small concession to old-age pensioners available to all pensioners who are, or who should be, entitled to it?
§ Mr. BrookeThe hon. Gentleman is asking us to be cleverer than his own Government were. It is extremely difficult to bring into the scope of the tobacco relief the type of person who draws pension for only two or three weeks at a time because otherwise he is working.