§ Mr. C. EDWARDSasked the Minister of Pensions whether he is aware that in determining the income for the home, when dealing with applications for need pensions from the Special Grants Committee, the earnings of sons who are married and living away from home are taken into account; and will he take steps to have this rectified?
Mr. MUIRThe Special Grants Committee in considering claims for supplementation of pension by parents of deceased soldiers are, like the Ministry itself, bound to have regard to the amount of support which the deceased son might reasonably have been expected to contribute had he survived. For this purpose they must ordinarily take into consideration the circumstances of other surviving sons. But each case is considered on its merits and neither in the case of the Special Grants Committee nor of the Ministry, are such considerations rigidly applied without regard to other qualifying circumstances which may be present in an individual case. In this connection, I may remind my hon. Friend of the substantial improvements in this class of pension which the Government have recently made, and which were announced in the answer I gave to the hon. Member for West Birkenhead (Mr. Egan) on the 5th inst.