Mr. FOOT MITCHELLasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury the number of old age pension claimants to whom the pension has been refused on the ground that they have not, since the age of 50, resided 12 years in this country; and how many of these unsuccessful claimants were precluded from fulfilling, this condition by being absent abroad during the War and refused permission by the military and naval authorities to return?
§ Major HORE-BELISHAasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether his attention has been called to the case of an old age pensioner, Mr. W. Carter, of 25, Andersons Road, Oatlands Park, who is in receipt of 12s. a week as a gardener, for which sum being correct his employer vouches, in spite of which he has been wrongly assessed by the pensions committee as earning 15s. a week, this decision being taken in his absence; if he is aware that this man has only been awarded a pension of 4s. a week on these incorrect data, although the employer has personally informed the clerk of the correct figure; and whether he will see that this man obtains his correct pension?
Mr. GRAHAMMy attention has not previously been called to this case. Under the law the decision as to the rate of old age pension, if any, to which a person is entitled, rests with the local pension committee subject to appeal to the central pension authority, which is in England and Wales the Ministry of Health, and in Scotland the Scottish Board of Health. I have, therefore, no power to intervene in the case.