Mr. PARKINSONasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether the correspondence regarding the case of Thomas Taberner, formerly a clerk at the Wigan County Court, has been brought to his notice; whether he is aware that this man joined the Army in 1914, at that time being twenty years of age and in receipt of a salary of £44 per annum; that in December, 1918, he was invalided home suffering 424W from neurasthenia and has since been discharged as a B 3 man; that he made application to be reinstated in his employment and was informed that he could commence work again at the same salary of £44 per annum, plus a war bonus of 23s. per week, providing he was not in receipt of a pension, and whether he will take action in this case and inform the responsible official that in the re-employment of an ex-soldier no account must be taken of any pension payable?
§ Mr. BALDWINThere has evidently been some misapprehension. The pension of an ex-soldier is not deducted from effective civil pay in any case. The Registrar of the Wigan County Court had to furnish certain particulars to the Treasury with reference to Thomas Taberner on the latter's return to civil duty as Registrar's clerk, mainly in order to ascertain the excess of his temporary allowance from Pensions Ministry funds over the amount of his pension; any such excess is subject to a deduction from civil pay. The Registrar furnished particulars to the effect that the man had neither temporary allowance nor pension, and the Registrar was then told that, assuming this to be correct, full salary and war bonus might be paid.