HC Deb 18 March 1912 vol 35 cc1668-9W
Mr. LARDNER

asked the Chief Secretary whether he is aware that Anne Brady, of Descart, Aghabog, in the county of Monaghan, who is an invalid, applied for an old age pension and was granted by the pension committee a pension of 2s. per week, and on her raising the question that she was entitled to 5s. per week the pension committee granted her a pension at that rate, against which decision the pension officer subsequently appealed to the-Local Government Board, when they disallowed her claim to a pension of 5s. per week and continued her original pension of 2s. per week; whether he is aware that Hugh Brady, who is blind, husband of Anne Brady, applied for a pension and the pension committee granted him a pension of 5s. per week, and on the appeal of the pension officer against this decision the Local Government Board held that he was not entitled to any pension; will he now state on what grounds the Local Government Board arrived at the decision that Hugh Brady was not entitled to any pension; and will he ask them to explain why Anne Brady is entitled to a pension of 2s. per week while her husband is not entitled to any pension?

Mr. BIRRELL

The means of Hugh Brady and his wife exceeded the statutory limit, and the Local Government Board disallowed the claim of the former for a pension. They could not, however, determine that his wife was not entitled to any pension, as the question submitted to them by the pension officer was merely whether she was entitled to a pension at the full rate of 5s. or at the rate of 2s.

Mr. O'DOHERTY

asked the Chief Secretary on what grounds the Local Government Board refused an old age pension to Charles Duffy, Milford sub-committee, county Donegal, number in P.O. Register 10/91, number in S.C.R. 7/282; and whether he is aware that the parish priest, the rector, and the medical doctor have certified from evidence that the claimant is over age?

Mr. BIRRELL

Charles Duffy's claim for pension was disallowed on the ground that he was under the statutory age. The persons referred to in the question alleged that he was seventy years of age, but they furnished no satisfactory evidence in support of their opinions.