§ Major Milnerasked the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that voluntary allowances made by some employers to employés joining the Army is treated as income and taken into account in the assessment of allowances from Army funds, with the result that the State gets the benefit of such voluntary allowances at the expense of the employer and the soldier is no better off; and whether he will take the necessary steps to arrange that such voluntary allowances shall not be taken into account?
§ Mr. LawI assume that my hon. and gallant Friend is referring to dependants' allowance, which is issuable in respect of a dependant other than a wife or child. The essential condition for the issue of this allowance is that the soldier must before his enlistment have been contributing towards the maintenance of such a dependant an amount greater than he can contribute from his resources whilst in the Army and that in consequence of his inability to continue the contribution the dependant is left in circumstances of hardship. Where an employer makes up a soldier's Army emoluments to their previous civilian level or to such a level as to avoid hardship to the dependant, this basic condition is clearly not fulfilled and dependants' allowance is therefore not issuable. No such condition is, of course, attached to the issue of family allowance payable in respect of a wife or children, which is not affected by the amount of the soldier's income from other sources.