§ Mr. Walkdenasked the Minister of Pensions whether he has now considered the correspondence sent to him relating to the deduction from the war pension and children's allowance of Jack Gray, D.C.M., of 7, Church Street, Thorne, Doncaster, of the whole or part of the £20 paid to him as a gratuity in connection with the citation of his gallantry in 1945, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal; and if he will 22W now cancel the debt claimed to be owing by this ex-soldier.
§ Mr. BuchananMy Department, on awarding Mr. Gray a disablement pension, was asked by the Service Department to pay him in addition a pension of 6d. a day in lieu of the gratuity of £20 already paid to him in respect of his Distinguished Conduct Medal. It is the practice in such cases to withhold the additional pension until the gratuity has been recovered. Last month Mr. Gray became eligible for arrears of child's allowance and, I regret to say that without consulting him, part of these arrears was withheld in order to wipe out the amount of the gratuity remaining unrecovered and so enable the additional pension to be put into payment forthwith instead of later. In view of a complaint from Mr. Gray, the arrears of child's allowance have been paid to him and payment of the additional pension has been postponed until 6th July next when the gratuity will have been fully recovered. A full explanation had already been sent to Mr. Gray before I received the hon Member's letter.