§ Mr. O'SHEEasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether any official of the Treasury or of the Local Government Board has authority to cancel an old age pension which has been granted to an applicant; whether, in case it is impossible 607W to find any properly authenticated record of the birth of an applicant or any reliable evidence of his age, or in case such record does not exist, a pension can be refused to an applicant who gives physical indications that he is beyond the age of 70 years; what is the procedure which must be followed to cancel a pension granted; and whether such cancellation will be authorised where no record of the age of the pensioner is available?
§ Mr. LLOYD-GEORGENo official of the Treasury has any power to cancel a pension awarded to a claimant in accordance with the provisions of the Act, and the functions of the Local Government Board are confined to hearing and determining appeals brought in accordance with the Act and the regulations made there-under. The question whether a claimant satisfying the statutory condition as to age is one for the pension committee to determine subject to appeal to the Local Government Board, and the pension committee are, subject to such appeal, the judges of the sufficiency of the evidence tendered. The normal procedure for the cancellation of a pension is by question raised in accordance with the provisions of section 7 of the Act, and it rests with the committee, subject to apeal, to decide whether the absence of documentary evidence of age is in itself a sufficient reason for deciding the question adversely to the pensioner.