Captain COOTEasked the Minister of Pensions the principles under which hospital stoppages are deducted from treatment allowances; and why it is that at the same hospital some men are stopped 9s. per week and others 19s.?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONThe revised Pensions Warrant of last year, under which, as my hon. and gallant Friend will remem-1392W ber, a substantial increase of pension was given to meet the increased cost of living, provided that a pensioner in hospital (who is not on pension, but on special rates of. allowance) should in all cases personally receive, or be credited with, a cash allowance of 21s. each week, and further that, if he were married, his wife should receive an increased allowance of 20s. a week. The apparent anomalies referred to are simply due to the fact that while the unmarried pensioner receives, or is credited with, not more than his 21s. a week (which is 19s. less than the maximum rate of pension), the aggregate amount received by the married pensioner and his wife is 41s. a week, or 9s. less than the maximum rate of pension. The explanation is, as my hon. and gallant Friend will have perceived, that the allowance to the wife, who has to meet the expenses of the home and the higher cost of living while the man is in hospital, is double the rate of the allowance payable to a wife who is living at home with her husband on pension.