HC Deb 14 April 1910 vol 16 cc1553-4W
Mr. THOMAS F. SMYTH

asked the Chief Secretary if he can state how many old age pensioners have been deprived of their pensions in the rural districts of Ballinamore, Carrick-on-Shannon No. 1, and Mohill, respectively, all of which districts are situate in the county Leitrim?

Mr. BIRRELL

I would refer the hon. Member to my reply to a similar question asked by the hon. Member for North Longford on the 4th instant.

Mr. THOMAS F. SMYTH

asked on what basis the pension officer calculated the income of Patrick Smyth, an old age pensioner living at Kilmakenny, in the Mohill rural district, county Leitrim, at £26 per annum, considering that the rent of the man's farm is only £2 10s. 4d. and the Poor Law valuation £3 15s.; and, as the Local Government Board accepted evidence that the man was over seventy years of age when he was receiving the pension, why is it that his pension is still stopped from him?

Mr. BIRRELL

In December last the Local Government Board determined that this claimant was entitled to a pension. I have no information as to the pension having been withdrawn, as alleged, or the method adopted by the pension officer in calculating the pensioner's income.

Mr. JOHN PHILLIPS

asked the Chief Secretary whether he will state why Daniel Connelly, Derrygowa, Newtown, Cashel, county Longford, an old man over eighty years of age, and living on a poor bog farm, was deprived of an old age pension after enjoying it for more than a year, when there was a change made in the pension office district by the appointment of a different pension officer; and will he direct the pension officer to restore the pension to this old man?

Mr. BIRRELL

The hon. Member is under a misapprehension in supposing that Connelly was in receipt of a pension for more than a year. His pension was discontinued in consequence of a decision of the Local Government Board in April, 1909, upholding an appeal by the pension officer, and his second claim was disallowed by the Board on appeal in February last. He holds a farm of nine acres, well stocked and cropped, and on each occasion the Board calculated that his means were in excess of the statutory limit. Pension officers are not under my control.