HC Deb 07 November 1940 vol 365 cc1457-8W
Sir. J. Mellor

asked the Secretary of State for War whether he will consider the revision of married officers' allowances with a view to eliminating for the period of the war the present discrimination against married officers under 30 years of age in comparison with married officers over 30 years of age; and whether he will, pending such revision, issue a public statement explaining the circumstances giving rise to the present anomalous situation?

Mr. Law

This is a complicated question. My hon. Friend has already been provided, in a particular case, with a very full statement of the reasons for the differentiation between the allowances payable in respect of their families to Army officers over 30 and Army officers under 30, to which I cannot usefully add. I am not prepared at present to consider revision of these allowances in the manner suggested. An extract from the statement to which I have referred is as follows: The ordinary peace-time scale of remuneration for Army officers did not recognise officers as married until they were 30 years of age and then it provided allowances for them based on general conditions of Army life. In effect, the provision of an allowance to married officers over 30 at certain rates is part of the general financial terms offered to those who make the Army a career. It was considered that the peace-time code could hardly be applied in war, when a large number of civilians who have married under 30 years of age serve with the Army. It would be difficult in their case to limit the grant of an allowance to those over 30, and it was decided that any concession given to officers in wartime in this respect should be extended during the war to regular peace-time officers under 30, even though, under the conditions of their service, they had no grounds for expecting this. On the other hand, it did not follow that the rates provided in the ordinary peacetime scale for officers who have made the Army their profession could of necessity be granted to war-time officers. It might have been more rational to have devised a new scale for all war-time officers narrowing the gap between the allowances of those under 30 and those over 30 and less favourable for those over 30 than peace-time rates. There were obvious difficulties in this, and it was decided to give all officers over 30 the benefit of the peacetime code.