§ Mr. LYNCHasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that Thomas Brown, of Leeds, Milton Malbay, West Clare, was in receipt of an old age pension from 1st January, 1909 to 19th October, 1909, but was then deprived of the pension solely on the ground that his name appeared in the Census of 1851 representing him to be then only nine years of age; whether the baptismal records of the parish where he was born, Kilmurry, Ibrickane, West Clare, which commence in 1841, contain no record of his name; whether he is aware that this man is able to furnish certificates of age from three respectable residents of the parish who are all considerably over seventy years of age; and whether he will take steps to have Thomas Brown's pension restored to him?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThomas Brown was disqualified on 4th September. 1909, by the County Clare Pension Committee on a question raised as to his age. If he was dissatisfied with this decision he should have appealed to the Local Government Board. It is open to him to prefer a fresh claim if he considers that he has sufficient evidence to prove that he has reached the statutory age for an old age pension.
§ Mr. MAURICE HEALYasked on what grounds the pension officer for Mallow has 597W lodged an appeal against the decision of the pension sub-committee granting John Lynch an old age pension of 5s. per week; whether Lynch endeavoured without success to procure a baptismal certificate and a certificate from the Census Office; whether the mere absence of these records {both being unobtainable) is, in the view of the Treasury, a ground for lodging an appeal; whether Lynch produced a baptismal certificate showing that a younger brother had been born in 1840, and also a certificate from a respectable resident showing that Lynch, as a man of twenty, had worked for him over fifty years ago, besides other evidence; and whether the Treasury will consider the advisability of discouraging frivolous appeals by pension officers?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEWhen the pension officer investigated John Lynch's claim for pension no evidence of age was produced. The officer had the Census Returns searched, but without result. At the meeting of the local pension committee evidence of age was produced by the claimant, and the committee awarded a pension of 5s. a week, without affording the officer an opportunity of inquiring into and testing the evidence of age produced. The pension officer therefore appealed against the Committee's decision to the Local Government Board, with whom the final decision now rests.