§ 51. Dr. Kingasked the Prime Minister what reply he has given to the Public Service Pensioners Council to its request for improvements in the pensions of public service pensioners.
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerI have been asked to reply.
My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has had no recent representations from the Public Service Pensioners Council. I understand, however, that it has made an approach to my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer and that arrangements are being made for my hon. and learned Friend the Financial Secretary to the Treasury to receive a deputation.
§ Dr. KingWhile thanking the right hon. Gentleman for that sympathetic 544 reply, may I ask him if he is aware that there are pensioners in the country who are too old to qualify for full National Insurance benefits and that old superannuated public servants today draw superannuation which is fantastically different from that earned by people in the same occupation who are much younger? Will he, therefore, give sympathetic consideration to the representations made by the Public Service Pensioners Council?
§ Mr. ButlerYes, Sir, and I hope that the Council will bring out points such as this when it meets my hon. and learned Friend.
§ Sir G. NicholsonWill my right hon. Friend bear in mind that there is already accord amongst all Members of this House that there should be some measure of justice for these elderly people, and that this would be the barest justice, because the pensions they are drawing now have very much smaller purchasing power than they had at the time when they were originally planned?
§ Mr. ButlerYes, Sir. That is why my hon. and learned Friend is to receive a deputation.