§ Mr. SCANLANasked the Chief Secretary upon what evidence the Local Government Board disallowed and put. an end to the pension of 5s. per week granted by the Skreen sub-committee of the county Sligo pension committee to Mrs. Mary Hart under the Old Age Pensions Act, and which had been paid to her from 13th December, 1909, to 15th November, 1912; whether he is aware of the fact that, both at the time of the original application of 50W Mrs. Hart in 1909 and on the occasion of the raising of the question of the pensioner's age by the pension officer in October, 1912, the local sub-committee unanimously decided, after considering the evidence, that Mrs. Hart was qualified and was over seventy years of age; if he will state whether it is the settled practice of the Local Government Board to disallow all claims for pensions objected to by pension officers where the claimant is unable to produce written evidence of date of birth, although on other grounds the local committees come to the conclusion that the age qualification is sufficiently established; and whether, in the special circumstances of this case, the Board will send an inspector to Skreen to inquire into the circumstances?
§ Mr. BIRRELLMary Hart's pension was discontinued on her own admission to. the pension officer that she was younger than a sister who was married in June, 1873, at the age of twenty-three. Mrs. Hart would therefore be under sixty-two-years of age. Her pension was originally granted on the strength of an extract from Census records, showing her to have-been five years of age in 1841, but on subsequent investigation it was found that the family referred to in the said extract did not correspond with the family of the pensioner. It is the practice of the Local Government Board to consider all evidence of age submitted by or on behalf of a claimant or pensioner, but the onus lies on the claimant or pensioner to produce-sufficient evidence of age. In these circumstances the Board do not consider it necessary to send an inspector to make. inquiry.