§ Mr. GOLDSTONEasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that in certain of the Government offices notices of compulsory retirement have been conveyed to several clerks who will shortly attain the age of sixty, and that in several of these cases the men concerned are receiving small salaries, and are unable to retire upon the full pension consequent upon a portion of their unestablished service not counting towards superannuation, with the result that the amounts on which they will be compelled to retire are small; whether he is aware that the men referred to entered the Government service under the practice which then prevailed of remaining till the age of sixty-five, and what is the authority in virtue of which notices of retirement have been sent to them, especially in view of the statement in the Treasury Minute of July, 1900, which makes provision for men on small salaries to remain until they have reached the age of sixty-five; and whether, in view of these circumstances, he will take steps to avert the hardship which will be inflicted on a number of persons in receipt of small salaries?
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§ Mr. MASTERMANUnder Clause 15 of the Order in Council the head of any Department may call upon any established officer in his Department to retire at any time after reaching the age of sixty on such pension as by length of his service he is qualified to receive. This provision, which is of long standing, is well known to Civil servants, and I have no power to intervene in the exercise by heads of Departments of their discretion in the matter. The Treasury Minute to which the hon. Member refers does not provide for retention until the age of sixty-five, and, as stated by one of my predecessors in this House on the 11th July, 1904, the paragraph referring to Civil servants on small salaries was not intended to be of general application, but to meet a limited class of cases which arose immediately on the passing of the Order in Council of 29th November, 1898.