§ Mr. JOWETTasked the Pensions Minister, concerning a discharged soldier who is under treatment at a municipal sanatorium for consumptives where civilian patients are treated free and where there are patients receiving the full sickness benefit of 10s. per week under the National Health Insurance scheme in addition to free treatment, whether it is in accordance with the present policy in regard to treatment of discharged soldiers in public institutions, that the soldier in question, a man with a wife and two children dependent upon him, suffers a reduction of 7s. per week from his pension, and a further reduction of 5s. a week from his National Health Insurance benefit during the period of treatment; and, if so, whether he will take steps to have this injustice to discharged soldiers removed?
§ Sir A. GRIFFITH-BOSCAWENIn the case of a discharged soldier with a wife and two children dependent on him, admission to a sanatorium carries an allowance of at least 13s. 9d. to the wife, with a further allowance of 11s. 8d. in respect of the children. At the same time the man himself draws an allowance in lieu of pension of at least 27s. 6d. a week, against which a deduction of 1s. a day is made for maintenance. He will also draw 5s. a week under the Insurance Acts, assuming, as the question implies, that he is insured and qualifies for the full1838W rate of benefit. In all, therefore, he gets for himself, his wife, and his children at least £2 10s. 11d. a week, in addition to his own maintenance and medical treatment. The benefits thus obtained represent in part the return for his insurance payments and in part compensation for disability caused by service, and constitutes, in my opinion, a not ungenerous provision. I may add that Parliament has specially provided for the reduction of insurance benefit by 5s. a week in Section 1 of the National Insurance (Part I. Amendment) Act, 1915.