§ Mr. GRIFFITHSasked the Minister of Pensions if there is proceeding a general revision of parents' pensions in his Department; if he is aware that a parent, reference D.P./160/B, who has been in receipt of a flat-rate pension of 5s. a week since April, 1915, has had her pension reduced to 4s. 2d. a week on the ground that the son was a few months over 26 years of age at the outbreak of the War, though he had joined the Territorial Army in 1913; and whether he will have inquiries made as to whether the pre-War dependence exceeded 4s. 2d. a week or if the mother should be granted a need pension?
§ Major TRYONNo general revision is either in process or in contemplation. In the particular case referred to, a flat rate pension of 5s. a week had on erroneous information been substituted for a pre-War dependence pension. It is a warrant condition of the grant of a flat rate pension that the deceased son should have been under 26 years of age at the outbreak of War, and in this case it recently became clear that this condition was not fulfilled. There was, therefore, no alternative but to cancel the erroneous award and to revert the pensioner to the original dependence pension. No claim for the award of a pension on the grounds of incapacity and need has been made, but it is open to the pensioner to apply if and when those conditions are fulfilled.
§ Mr. GRIFFITHSasked the Minister of Pensions if he is aware that a lady in receipt of Army parents' pension, 18,702, payable through the Paymaster-General, 2082W has had notice that her pension will be reduced on the ground that her husband, a superannuated member of the Typographical Society, has been awarded a pension of £26 a year from 4th January, 1928, under the Widows', Orphans', and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act; and if he will state the reason for the reduction, in view of the provision in the Contributory Pensions Act, 1925, that the pension could be drawn concurrently with a parents' pension payable in respect of a son killed in the Great War?
§ Major TRYONI would refer the hon. Member to the first proviso to Sub-section (1) of Section 24 of the Contributory Pensions Act, 1925, which excludes service dependants' pensions calculated with reference to the necessities of the pensioner from the general provisions of the Sub-section to which he refers in the last part of the question. The pension payable from my Department in this case is of the class to which the proviso applies, and I have no alternative but to take the new pension into account, equally with an increase of income from any other source, in assessing the pension still payable under the Royal Warrant. I may add, however, that the reduction is substantially less than the new pension granted under the Act.