§ Mr. COMPTONasked the Minister of Pensions whether, when a man is boarded and the medical officers find that he is suffering from a disability clue to war service, for which he is not receiving a pension, the man is informed and instructed to claim in respect of the disability under Article 9; and; if this be not the case, will he issue instructions that in all cases where a man claims a pension in respect of a disability previously diagnosed by the Ministry doctors as being present, he shall, on having the claim to pension accepted, be paid arrears on the assessment made by the doctors from the. date they first recorded the existence of the disability on the report of the medical board?
§ Major TRYONIt is the function of a medical board in examining a pensioner to advise the Ministry on the condition of disablement resulting from the ascertained disability or disabilities, not to pre-judge a condition in respect of which no claim has been made. It is, however, an instruction to boards that if in the course of a medical examination they find another ailment, and the man alleges that it is connected with his War service, the board should refer him to the local area officer, who will advise him as to the steps to be taken in order to claim compensation for the disablement, if any, arising in consequence of it.
§ Mr. COMPTONasked the Minister of Pensions if he will arrange with the Minister of Labour that that Department shall report all cases of disabled men who are refused unemployment benefit on the ground that they are not physically fit for employment; and whether he will arrange to have the men reboarded and, if their inability to work is due to war injury, issue instructions that they shall be given a total disablement pension of 100 per cent.?
§ Major TRYONThe assessment of disablement pension is required, in the interests of ex-service men, to be made only in accordance with medical certification as to the degree of disablement sustained, without regard to considerations of earning capacity or of fitness or unfitness for employment in a particular occupation. I should have no authority, therefore, to adopt the hon. Member's suggestion.