§ Mr. DONNELLYasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he is aware that a Mrs. Thompson, of Corcrum, Poyntzpass, county Armagh, recently applied for an old age pension; that her application was unanimously supported by the old age pensions committee; and that the local clergyman testified to her being destitute and under the doctor's care and admittedly over seventy years of age; whether her claim was refused by the Local Government Board on appeal of the pensions officer on the grounds that she was being maintained by a relative and that such gratuitous help as her relative could give her was estimated as income and disqualified her from receiving an old age pension; and whether, having regard to all the circumsances, he will have the case reopened and an old age pension awarded in this case?
Mr. HENRYThe facts are as stated in the first two paragraphs of the question. The decision of the Local Government Board is in accordance with the terms of Section 2 (1) (d) of the Old Age Pensions Act, 1911, under which the2236W claimant's means include the yearly value of any benefits or privileges enjoyed by her. In this case the claimant is maintained by her son-in-law on a farm. He has two acres of potatoes, eight acres of oats, two acres of hay, two acres of root crops, three acres of flax, and stock, three cows, four two-year-olds, three calves, two horses, and five dozen fowls. His rent, including payment for land taken outside the farm, is £33 7s. 6d. a year, and the value of claimant's maintenance would be worth in the Hoard's view over £31 10s. a year. Having given their decision the Board have no power to reopen the case.