§ Mr. SWIFT MacNEILLasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether, regard being had to the fact that paragraph 28 of the Treasury scheme, dated 5th October, 1916, for awarding additional allowances to old age pensioners suffering special hardship owing to the War, states that the question of providing for the expenses of the pension committees and subcommittees in the consideration of applications for additional allowances will be considered by the Treasury, and inasmuch as the clerks of such committees have as much, if not more, trouble with the additional allowance applications as with claims and questions, steps will be taken to secure that the remuneration of clerks under the scheme will not be less than that fixed for claims and questions under the Old Age Pensions Acts Regulations; why has the scale of the expenses of the pension committees and sub-committees in consideration of applications for additional allowances not been settled at the same time as the Treasury scheme came into operation, entailing thereby additional work and labour; whether he is aware that some pension sub-committees have decided not to proceed with the con- 60W sideration of any of the applications for additional allowances until the scale of expenses to be fixed by the Treasury has been promulgated; and whether immediate steps will be taken for the settlement of the scale of expenses in connection with additional allowance applications on the same basis as that of the claims and questions and for the promulgation of such scale?
Mr. McKINNON WOODInstructions with reference to the remuneration of the clerks to these committees are in course of preparation and will be issued shortly. The reason why the remuneration of these clerks was not settled before the scheme came into operation was that, in view of the numerous administrative arrangements required for the scheme, this would have involved a delay in bringing it into operation which the Government were most anxious to avoid; I am not aware of the facts alleged in the third part of the question.
§ Mr. KELLYasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is now in a position to state the amounts which will be handed over to the pension committees and subcommittees under paragraph 25 of the scheme for allowances to old age pensioners to defray expenses; and can he give an assurance that the scale will be fixed on the same basis as that of claims and questions, in view of the fact that the work involved will be at least as difficult and complex?
Mr. McKINNON WOODInstructions with reference to the remuneration of the clerks to these committees are in course of preparation, and will be issued shortly.