§ 4.33 p.m.
§ LORD BIRDWOODMy Lords, I beg to ask the question standing in my name.
[The question was as follows:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether all increases in pensions and allowances granted to officers and other ranks and ratings during the present war have also applied to the pensioners, and dependants, of all previous wars and campaigns in which His Majesty's Forces have been engaged since 1870; if not in all cases, what exceptions have been made, and the reasons for doing so.]
VISCOUNT CLIFDENMy Lords, the rates of pension for disabled officers and other ranks and ratings and for their widows, where the disablement or death resulted from service in wars which took place prior to 1914, were, shortly after the termination of hostilities in the Great War, brought up to the Great War rates. Broadly speaking, the Great War and present war rates of pension for disablement (both for officers and other ranks and ratings), and of pensions for the widows of other ranks and ratings, and of allowances where payable, have been assimilated. There is a difference between the Great War and the present war rates for officers' widows arising from the fact that the former were on a basis different from the present war rates. There is also a difference in the disablement rates of one or two classes of officers. These are the main differences, and they are receiving consideration with a view to deciding whether any alterations are justified. There are also certain differences in respect of parents, separated wives and unmarried dependants who have lived as wives of the disabled or deceased members, but in these cases the conditions governing the award of pension also vary.
§ LORD BIRDWOODMy Lords, I presume that one may take it from the reply which has been given to my question, that the matter of these pensions is definitely being reconsidered. I am thinking especially of a very small case, that of a widow, a widow of this war, who gets £10 in pension more than a widow of the last war. I asked that the widow 1223 of the last war should be allowed the extra £10 and was told that that could not be done.