Major STEWARTasked the Minister of Pensions whether he is aware that many pensions are refused because the doctor, when giving a death certificate, only mentions the immediate or chief cause of death, and not knowing that such action may affect the withholding of a pension, does not trouble to trace any connection between the immediate cause of death and a pensionable disability: and that when a man goes before a medical board there are three doctors to adjudicate upon his case, but when he dies one doctor's certificate is accepted as final by the Ministry; and whether, under these circumstances, he will consider the advisability of granting a post-mortem examination in pension cases in order to discover the real cause of death, if requested so to do by the relatives of the deceased man?
Mr. ROBERTSI am afraid the hon. Member is under some misapprehension. Claims to pension on behalf of widows and dependants of ex service men are considered on their merits in the light of all the available evidence, and in fact many claims have, after investigation, been admitted, notwithstanding that the certified cause of death did not, on the face of it, substantiate the claim. The suggestion made in the last part of the question is, I fear, one that I should have no power to adopt.