§ Mr. LUNDONasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that, according to the report of the Auditor-General, the English Local Government Board have sanctioned the payment of old age pensions to people who surrendered their interests in farms of from forty to fifty acres in order to become eligible under the Act; is it the rule that all such claims are admitted; and, if so, is Section 4 (3) of the Old Age Pensions Act, which is being put in force in Ireland with such rigidness and severity, inoperative in England. Wales, 760W and Scotland; what is the reason for allowing people such as have been quoted by the Auditor-General to obtain a pension, whilst at the same time and under the same law a person who only holds fifteen acres of land in Ireland, and who surrenders it according to the old custom to his or her children in case of marriage, is deprived of the benefits of the Act; and have special instructions been given to the pension officers in Ireland to appeal against the decision of the local committees in all such cases, or was it the intention of those who promoted the scheme that the treatment to be meted out to applicants in Ireland was to be more stringent than to those similarly situated in this country?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThe Report to which the hon. Member alludes does not indicate whether the two claims instanced by the Comptroller and Auditor-General were allowed by a local pension committee or by the Local Government Board on appeal; but I infer from the allowance of the second claims that in each instance the claimants satisfied the pension authorities that the provisions of Section 4 (3) of the Old Age Pensions Act did not apply. As regards the second, third, and fourth parts of the question, I can only say that, so far as concerns the estimates of means submitted to pension committees by pension officers, the rule is the same in all parts of the United Kingdom—namely, to apply the provisions of the section when they are applicable, and not to apply them where they are not applicable. The answer to the fifth and sixth parts of the question is in the negative.
Mr. BOYLEasked the Chief Secretary if he will state why Michael McAndrew, of Ballycastle, county Mayo, was deprived of his old age pension?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe particulars furnished are insufficient to enable the Local Government Board to identify the claimant with certainty, but if the hon. Member is referring to Michael McAndrew, of Ratheskin, Kincur, Killala, the claim was disallowed by the Killala pension sub-committee in December, 1908, on the ground that his means exceeded the statutory limit, and the decision of the sub-committee was upheld by the Board on appeal.