§ 28. Mr. Kenneth Lewisasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance whether she will consider amending the regulations for pension payment whereby Monday is the only qualifying day for payment to commence.
§ Mr. PentlandI have explained in recent correspondence with the hon. Member the reasons for the present arrangement, which I see no cause to change.
§ Mr. LewisIs the Parliamentary Secretary aware that it is grossly unfair that any person who retires on a Monday and who may be doing a service to his employer—in the case in question it was a local authority—should then find that 1219 he loses his pension for the whole of the week? Could not some administrative arrangements be made whereby he picked up what was his due?
§ Mr. PentlandNo, Sir. Pension is normally a payment in advance and, provided that entitlement has been determined before payment falls due, as is usually the case, every pensioner should receive a full week's pension within at the most a week of his retirement, regardless of the day of the week in which he retires.