§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ LORD ARNOLD:My Lords, the object of this Bill is to amend the Pensions Increase Act, 1920, so as to bring certain small pre-war pensions more closely into accord with the altered value of money. The Pensions Increase Act, 1920, provided for the grant of a percentage increase on pensions. The increases were intended to be given on eleemosynary grounds and it was therefore further provided that they should not be granted to persons whose means, including their pensions, exceeded the maximum limits mentioned above. The new Bill increases the percentages on the smaller pensions of less than £100 per annum. It also repeals the qualification that the pensioner must reside in the British Isles, and makes it obligatory upon the local authorities to whom the Act of 1920 applies to grant the prescribed increases. It does not alter the maximum limits and means qualifications.
The Act of 1920 affected some 100,000 pensioners and its cost is now about £1,000,000 per annum. The cost of the increases proposed in Clause 1 of the Bill is estimated not to exceed £300,000 a year, plus from £50,000 to £60,000 a year for removing the condition that the pensioner must reside in the British Isles. In addition, the grant of the increases retrospectively from July 1, 1923, in accordance with undertakings given by the late Government, will cost £225,000 this year. The cost to local rates of making the increases obligatory on local authorities cannot be precisely estimated, but in the case of police authorities, which are mainly concerned, it will not 200 exceed £18,000 a year, of which half will be borne by the Exchequer. The total cost of the Bill to the Exchequer in 1924-25 is thus nearly £600,000, but as this includes the exceptional amount of £225,000 for the retrospective payments from July 1, 1923, the annual cost of the Bill in future will be reduced by the sum of £225,000, making the cost rather less than £375,000 a year. I beg to move.
Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a.— (Lord Arnold.)
§ On Question, Bill read 2a, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.
§ LORD ARNOLD:If it is agreeable to your Lordships I should like to take the Committee stage of this Bill to-morrow. It is a non-controversial measure.