§ Colonel ASHLEYasked the Minister of Health whether, in view of the inequality of treatment meted out to totally disabled pensioners as compared with partially disabled pensioners in the matter of sickness and disablement benefits, men in receipt of disablement pensions amounting to over £26 per annum may be regarded as eligible for exemption from compulsory insurance or, alternatively, that no reduction of benefit shall be made to a man drawing a total disablement pension if he is incapacitated from following his employment owing to causes unconnected with his pensionable disabilities?
§ Major ASTORA man in receipt of any disability pension exceeding £26 per annum is entitled to a certificate of exemption under the National Insurance Acts. It would not be feasible to carry out the suggestion contained in the last part of the question owing to the difficulty in practice of differentiating between incapacity resulting from the original dis-796W ability and incapacity resulting from other causes. But the 1917 Act provides for the resumption of the right to full sickness benefit in the case of any total disability pensioner who has in fact re-established his working capacity.