§ [The reference is to Bill No. 91.]
§
Clause 6, page 4, line 4, at end insert as as a new subsection:
("( ) Where the marriage leading to the legitimation of a child took place before the fourth day of January, nineteen hundred and twenty-six, and the father of the child died before that date, the child shall, for the purpose of determining rights to pension or additional allowance under the Widows', Orphans' and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act, 1925, be deemed to have been a child of the marriage living at that date:
Provided that nothing in this subsection shall confer any right to claim any payment in respect of any period prior to the date of legitimation.")
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT CAVE)My Lords, there is only one Commons Amendment to this Bill. I think it is quite a reasonable one, but it requires a little explanation. Its object is to provide for a difficulty which might arise under the Widows', Orphans' and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act of 1925. That Act, which applies both to England and Scotland, does provide in 1680 Section 44 (4) that where a child has been legitimated by the subsequent marriage of its parents, the child shall, for the purposes of the Act, be taken as a child born of the marriage, but a difficulty might arise as to the rights of a widow in a particular case. The Act of last year provides for the payment of a pension to a widow of a man who died before the commencement of that Act—namely, January 4, 1926, bat only in certain conditions, and one of those conditions is contained in paragraph (c) of Section 18 of the Act of last year. That section says:
A widow's pension shall be payable only if the widow has not remarried before the commencement of this Act, and if, at the commencement of this Act there is living at least one child of the marriage, or of any former marriage of either parent, under the age of fourteen.Therefore in order that the widow may be entitled to a pension there must have been living at the date of the commencement of that Act at least one child of the marriage under 14, and legitimation under this Act cannot come into operation until the commencement of this Act—namely January, 1927, and the presumption would be that the widow would not become qualified for pension under the Act of 1925 in respect of an illegitimate child living in January, 1926 although that child would become legitimated under this Bill. That is the difficulty which this Amendment is intended to meet, and it is provided that in that case the child shall, for the purpose of determining the rights to pension under the Act of 1925, be deemed to be a child of the marriage, living at that date. It is a reasonable proposal, and I move that this House doth agree with the Commons Amendment.
§ Moved, That this House cloth agree with the Commons in the said Amendment.—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.