§ 2.51 p.m.
THE EARL OF CORK AND ORRERYMy Lords, I beg to ask the first Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask His Majesty's Government:—
- (a) What has been the percentage rise in the wages of miners, dockers, railwaymen and those employed in the transport industry during the five years January 1, 1947, to January 1, 1952;
- (b) What has been the percentage rise during the same period in the pensions and allowances granted to the dependants of those who were killed or died on active service, and to the totally disabled as the result of war injuries.]
§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURYMy Lords, the estimated percentage rise in the full-time weekly rates of wages of miners, dockers, railwaymen and transport workers during the five years from January 1, 1947, to January 1, 1952, was approximately 23 per cent. The rise in the average amount of pension and allowances paid by the Ministry of Pensions to widows and their children was approximately five per cent.; for other dependants (parents, et cetera), the increase was approximately 14 per cent. It is regretted that a percentage figure for totally disabled war pensioners is not available.
THE EARL OF CORK AND ORRERYMy Lords, while thanking the noble Marquess for his reply, may I be allowed to ask the Government whether they do not consider it somewhat discreditable to this nation, which annually holds an Armistice Day as a national tribute to those who lost their lives in the nation's service, that we should allow their widows and orphans to be the most miserable of those sections of the nation for which the Government are responsible? I would ask whether the Government will consider introducing supplementary allowances, to be paid in excess of the basic pensions, so that pensions would always remain in the same relative position to the cost of living as when they were granted.
§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURYMy Lords, I assure the noble and gallant Earl most sincerely that His Majesty's Government are fully aware of the problem to which his supplementary question refers. Indeed, it has already been announced, as the noble and gallant Earl probably knows, that we are undertaking a review of the whole question of pensions, in which, as the Minister of Pensions himself said in another place, the question of war pensions is being considered. That review, I am afraid, is not yet completed, although it has already been started; therefore I am sure the noble and gallant Earl will understand that I cannot say anything more to-day. I can assure him, however, that I will bring what he has said immediately to the attention of my honourable friend the Minister of Pensions.