HC Deb 09 September 1941 vol 374 cc53-5W
Captain Plugge

asked the Minister of Pensions whether, in his assessment of the reasonable cost of the funeral expenses of a victim of enemy action at £7 10s., he has ascertained the views of undertakers as well as those of local authorities?

Sir W. Womersley

The grant of £7 10s. is considered to be a reasonable contribution by the State, especially as in all these cases a public funeral can be provided without expense to the relatives.

Captain Plugge

asked the Minister of Pensions whether he will consider empowering his Statutory Advisory Committee to meet regularly and not merely on official invitation?

Sir W. Womersley

Whilst maintaining the statutory position that meetings of my Central Advisory Committee are called when I need their advice, I am making arrangements to ensure that the intervals between meetings are not unduly long.

Sir R. Gower

asked the Minister of Pensions how many pensions and/or allowances are being paid in respect of civilian casualties caused by accidents to our own aeroplanes?

Sir W. Womersley

The information is, I regret, not available.

Miss Ward

asked the Minister of Pensions (1) whether he will follow the example of Ministers during and after the last war, and make public the rates of pensions to be paid for permanent specific injuries arising from the present war;

(2)whether, in assessing the compensation to be paid to women who suffer amputations as a result of the present war, he will take into account the added obviousness of the disability by comparison with men, discomfort in wearing artificial limb attachments, wear and tear of clothing, loss of amenities of life, damaged prospects of matrimony, and the severe handicap in the domestic sphere; and whether he will state the proportion of the award of 9s. 8d. per week paid as compensation for the loss of a leg and the foregoing items?

(3) the names and qualifications of members of the committee of experts which recently considered the scales of pensions to be paid for permanent specific injuries resulting from the present war; whether all of the committee's recommended amendments have been adopted; and who is responsible for the award of 9s. 8d. per week pension to women who suffer amputation of leg below knee with stump exceeding six inches, seeing that an award of £1 per week was paid to 1914-18 war pensioners with exactly the same disability?

Sir W. Womersley

It is not intended to publish generally the assessments for specific injuries, which are given not as an absolute direction but for the guidance of medical officers appointed or recognised for the purpose of reporting on claims to war disablement pensions. Assessment of disablement is by comparison with a normal healthy person of the same age and sex and takes into account all effects of the disabling condition. It would be inappropriate to assess an exactly similar amputation differently in the case of a woman than in the case of a man. In the main the assessments now are, in general, the same as those in the TQ19 Warrant. In certain cases they are higher and in others lower. Assessments for amputation through the leg below the knee, with a stump exceeding four inches, are normally 40 per cent, as against 50 per cent, shown in the Schedule to the 1919 Warrant. The reason is that the advance in surgery and in the design and fitting of artificial limbs has been such that as a rule an assessment of 50 per cent, is no longer justified in these cases. There is no case of an amputation to which an award of £I a week would attach in Great War cases where the New War award would be 9s. 8d. a week. The Royal Warrant of 1919 from which the rate of £I a week is taken made no provision for women. The expert committee which considered the normal assessments for permanent specific injuries was composed of eminent independent surgeons and officers of my Department. I do not regard it as appropriate to give the names of those who advised me on this matter.