CHELSEA HOSPITAL PENSIONS. (Hansard, 18 April 1916)

§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY
My Lords, I wish to ask His Majesty's Government whether there is any scale of pensions granted by the Commissioners of Chelsea Hospital to soldiers discharged as permanently unfit by reason of wounds incurred on service, or of disease caused or aggravated by service at home or abroad, distinguishing between the pension granted immediately upon discharge and the reduced pension granted subsequently.

LORD SANDHURST
My Lords, in regard to soldiers discharged in consequence of the present war on account of wounds, injuries, or sunstroke received in action or in the performance of military duty, on account of blindness caused by military service, or owing to disease directly or wholly due to war service, the present system and special rates of pensions were approved in 1915 after the subject had been considered by a Select Committee of the House of Commons, and this Royal Warrant of 1915 is an addendum to the ordinary regulations in the Pay and Pension Warrant, 786 1914. I will show in a moment the possible effect of the latter Royal Warrant. By the latest Royal Warrant—that is, of 1915—it is laid down that a private soldier pronounced by a medical board to be totally incapacitated from earning is to get a pension of 25s. per week. Additions are made for higher ranks—namely, noncommissioned officers. A corporal gets 2s. a week more; a sergeant, 4s.; a colour-sergeant, 6s.; a quartermaster-sergeant and warrant officer, Class II, 8s.; and a warrant officer, Class 1, 15s. additional. A private soldier during the period of total incapacity will, in addition, draw an allowance of 2s. 6d. per week for each child born before discharge up to the age of sixteen. A soldier who has lost an arm, a leg, or an eye will get a permanent pension of not less than 10s. 6d. a week, irrespective of any earnings he may get. Similarly if a man has lost two limbs or is totally blinded he will get the maximum pension as a permanent grant—that is, 25s. a week.
I now come to the plan for the partially-disabled man, and the system of calculation of the pension to be awarded to him. The Select Committee's Report and the Royal Warrant of 1915 say that the man is to have as much pension as will, with the wages he may be deemed capable of earning, amount to 25s., the totally incapacitated rate of pension. When a man is first discharged for wounds or sickness the Chelsea Commissioners do not consider it possible to estimate the amount he is capable of earning, as his position in the labour market has been, so to say, upset by his disability. They therefore take all these men as normally earning 25s. a week, and fix the pension for the first few months after discharge according to the degree of incapacity reported by the medical board. If the medical board assesses that incapacity at one quarter, the man would get 6s. 3d.; if at one half, 12s. 6d.; and if three quarters, 18s. 9d. But when the man has been a few months in civil life and has to some extent settled down, the wages he earns or can earn become the criterion. This is a different test front degree of incapacity as reported by the medical board, because that degree is merely their view as to the impairment of the man in the general labour market without reference to his trade or general calling in life. Thus a clerk in a good or confidential position might have been more severely wounded than an agricultural labourer and yet be 787 able to earn higher wages notwithstanding. When the pensioner's personal earnings are assessed at so much per week, he is given the pension which will, with the earnings, make up 25s. per week. In addition to the pension thus calculated the man is allowed 2s. 6d. a week for each child born before discharge, as I said just now, if he has the full pension or nearly the full pension, with smaller rates, roughly proportionate, if he gets less than the maximum.
But this is where the permanent pay rules come in under the Royal Warrant of 1914. A man may, in spite of physical damage, be able to earn so much a week that the new scheme started by the House of Commons Select Committee may be of no use to him. Thus a highly-skilled workman may still be able to earn 20s., which would mean a pension of only 5s. a week, and perhaps 6d. for each of his two or three children—in all, 6s. or 6s. 6d. In such a case the Chelsea Commissioners would say, What should we have given this man under the old Pay Warrant? He might be assessed as partially capable of earning in the general labour market, in which case they could give him up to ls. 6d. per day, or 10s. 6d. a week. The fact of the man having special skill and being able to earn in some special manner would not deprive him of his rights under the Royal Warrant, 1914. From the point of view of the general labour market he could thus get 20s., and up to 10s. 6d. as pension; but in this case he would get no allowance for children, that being a new provision under the Royal Warrant of 1915. Of course, improvement may take place in the man's condition—and it is to be hoped it will—and these disability pensions are given usually for limited periods; in the first instance for six months. They are reviewed from time to time in accordance with fresh medical reports, and local inquiry is made as to earning capacity, wages, and so on, the pension not being made permanent until the question of incapacity is finally established.
In the case of soldiers who have lost limbs, it is now the practice to retain them in the Service until they have been fitted with artificial substitutes. A soldier who has lost a leg and has been provided with 788 an artificial one is regarded as totally disabled for two months after discharge while he is getting accustomed to the new limb and is looking for employment—that is, he receives 25s. a week—and afterwards he reverts to his 10s. 6d. for the lost limb irrespective of earnings, unless they are not sufficient to make up the 25s. The rate of award for the loss of an arm for the first two months is 20s., slightly more than three-quarters permanent incapacity allowance—permanent rate, 10s. 6d. as stated. As regards cases of disability aggravated though not caused by service in this war, a new Royal Warrant is now in course of publication providing that four-fifths of the pension may be granted with children's allowance which would have been awarded under the Royal Warrant of 1915 if the disability had been wholly or directly due to war service. I may say that the State will provide artificial limbs and teeth free of charge, and also surgical boots, and so on, and I think I am correct in adding that they can be repaired, subject to the discretion of the Chelsea Commissioners, free of charge to the pensioner. But I must also point out that it will not be of advantage to a man to throw up a job in the hope of getting a higher pension, or to lose or neglect his surgical appliance. I hope I have been able to furnish the noble Marquess with the information he desires.

THE MARQESS OF SALISBURY
Can my noble friend tell me why a man who has lost an arm is thought to be more qualified to make up the difference between the pension and the 25s. a week than a man who has lost a leg? I should have thought that the loss of an arm was a greater disablement than the loss of a leg.

LORD SANDHURST
I have asked that question myself. I believe this distinction is the result of the recommendation of the Select Committee. I understand it was thought that a man who had lost an arm was not so badly off as a man who had lost a leg. Take the case of a messenger. A man with one arm could take messages very well, but a man with but one leg would be handicapped.