§ 57. Sir B. Jannerasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that people who have intermittent periods of illness preventing them from work are not being paid post-war credits because each of such periods does not last continuously for twenty-six weeks; and if he will amend the regulations to give greater help to sick people in need.
§ Sir E. BoyleI am aware of the regulations. On the second part of the Question, I will bear the hon. Member's proposal in mind, but it presents serious practical difficulties.
§ Sir B. JannerI thank the Minister for his reply. Will he give serious consideration to the matter, particularly in view of the case in Leicester which I brought to his notice in which a person, who, unfortunately, suffers from a very serious illness—he has had many periods of illness of less than twenty-six weeks duration—and is unable to obtain the post-war credits although the aggregate of the periods of illness is extremely extensive?
§ Sir E. BoyleThe hon. Gentleman has referred a hard case to me, as I am well aware. Therefore, I have been looking into it as carefully as I could. The difficulty is that, while a formula could be devised to meet these cases, it would be extremely difficult to operate, not only for the Revenue, but for all the other authorities which will have to certify the claims. We have isolated a number of social service categories from the point of view of priority release of post-war credits. We should be careful of going further until we are sure that any regulations will operate fairly, although I fully recognise that the case which the hon. Gentleman has raised is a hard one.
§ Sir B. JannerI made a mistake in thanking the Minister. In view of the unsatisfactory reply, I propose to raise the matter on the Adjournment at an early opportunity.