§ Mr. OLIVER LOCKER-LAMPSONasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the approximate cost of extending old age pensions to all widows between sixty-five and seventy years of age who would be entitled to them if they were over seventy?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEI regret that I have not the information which would enable me to answer the question. An estimate could not be framed without immense labour, and even then the result would be untrustworthy.
§ Mr. DORISasked the Chief Secretary upon what grounds the Local Government Board, on appeal, disallowed an old age pension granted repeatedly by the Louis-burgh sub-committee to Mary Davitt, 831W widow, Kinnadoohy, Louisburgh; what are the items of claimant's income as estimated by the pension officer, and does his estimate include all profits from land which claimant holds as representative of her late husband and trustee for her two sons, who are legally entitled to shares of such profits?
§ Mr. BIRRELLMary Davitt's claim was disallowed by the Local Government Board on appeal on the ground that her means exceeded the statutory limit. She lives on a farm of ninety-one acres, which is fully stocked and well tilled. Her statement is that she transferred the farm to her two sons, but the fact remains that she resides on the farm, and that the rent receipts are in her name; and the Board accordingly were not satisfied that she was not, in fact, in beneficial occupation of the farm.
§ Mr. HAYDENasked the reason for the Local Government Board having disallowed the pension twice granted by the Athlone pension committee to Mr. Edward Leonard, Moyvannon, Kiltoom, county Roscommon, in face of the fact that this man is seventy-three years of age and that his only income is £5 a year and the use of a room in the house of his son.
§ Mr. BIRRELLEdward Leonard lives with his son on a good farm of thirty-seven acres, which is well stocked and tilled, and notwithstanding the fact that he assigned the farm to his son in February, 1911, the privileges he derives there from could not, in the opinion of the Local Government Beard, be regarded as worth less than £31 10s. a year.
§ Mr. DANIEL BOYLEasked on what grounds Mrs. Anne McAndrew, Aughleam, Belmullet, county Mayo, has been deprived of her old age pension at the instance of the local pension officer?
§ Mr. BIRRELLAnne McAndrew's pension was disallowed by the Local Government Board on the ground that her means exceeded the statutory limit. She lives with her husband, who is the occupier of a farm of ten acres of good land, of which three acres are tilled, and which carries twelve head of cattle, a horse, pigs, and some fowl.
§ Mr. JAMES O'KELLYasked the Chief Secretary if Mrs. Alice Coen, of Lisserdrea Boyle, Boyle, county Roscommon, and Martin Finneran, of Tintagh, Boyle, county Roscommon, were reported by the 832W pension officer at Boyle to be entitled to 3s. a week pension; if on the 1st August, 1912, the Boyle (No. 1) old age pension sub-committee decided they were entitled to 5s. a week; if, on an appeal being brought against the decisions by the pension officer to the Local Government Board for Ireland, the Board decided the claimants were not entitled to any pension; whether he will state upon what grounds the Board came to their decisions; and if the Board was in a better position to decide on the merits than the pension officer and the sub-committee who investigated the claims locally?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe facts generally are as stated in the first part of the question. In both these cases the Local Government Board disallowed the claims on appeal on the ground that the means of the claimants exceeded the statutory limit. Alice Coen lived with her husband on a farm of sixteen acres which was well stocked and tilled, while Martin Finneran had a farm of eleven acres of good land which was also fully stocked and tilled, and it appeared to the Board that neither of these persons was entitled to any pension.