Brigadier-General NICHOLSONasked the Home Secretary if an officer of the prisons department, who is a widower and whose daughter is acting as housekeeper, is treated as a bachelor as regards subsistence allowance; if the term bond, fide dependant in the Regulations may be interpreted to mean a daughter acting as housekeeper; and has the allowance been refused in such a case recently?
§ Mr. SHORTTThe question no doubt refers to the allowances granted to officers transferred in the public interest and unable to obtain unfurnished quarters. For the purpose of such allowances—as I explained in reply to a question on 10th November—unmarried officers having dependants living with them are treated in the same way as married officers. An allowance was applied for by a widower, who represented that his daughter should be regarded as his housekeeper, but as it appeared she was not living with him, and not dependent on him, the allowance could not be granted.