§ Mr. HALL-CAINEasked the Minister of Pensions the number of applications made by ex-service men for pensions in respect of epilepsy, which they attribute to their war service, and in how many cases pensions have been granted?
§ Major TRYONI have no record of the number of claims for pension that have been made in respect of epilepsy. The aggregate number of pensions that have been granted in respect of this disease is 8,412.
§ Mr. RHYS DAVIESasked the Minister of Pensions the reasons for the disparity as between officers and men in receipt of pensions and grants during the 10 years 1925–34; why during that time the 1379W number of disabled officers in receipt of pensions, etc., has fallen from 25,450 to 23,050, approximately 9 per cent., and the number of disabled men from 534,000 to 441,350, approximately 17 per cent.; and why, taking the longer period from 1922, the disparity is represented by, approximately, 27 per cent. officers and 51 per cent. men?
§ Major TRYONThe suggested disparity as between officers and men has no foundation in fact as the figures quoted for the two classes of pensioner are not comparable. Awards of less than 20 per cent. assessment in the case of officers are discharged by lump sum gratuities which, of course, do not appear as currently in payment on a particular date, but in the case of men such awards are mostly paid by way of "final weekly allowances" running for a longer or shorter period and the beneficiaries consequently do appear in the pension list. If awards of less than 20 per cent. are, as they must be, excluded from the comparison, the number of pensioners of non-commissioned rank has fallen between the dates 31st March, 1925, and 1934, from 476,860 to 440,725—a reduction, not of 17 per cent., but of 7.6 per cent. Comparison over the longer period from 31st March, 1922, to the corresponding date in 1934 is further vitiated by the facts that (a) demobilisation took place a good deal more slowly (for military reasons) in the case of officers than in that of men, and, consequently, claims for pension were later; (b) a substantial number of disabled regular officers remained on half pay for some years before retirement and so are not reckoned in the Ministry's pension list for 1922, and (c) the figures of the 1922 pension list for men includes several thousands who were receiving temporary awards for non-attributable disabilities (under Article 7 of the Royal Warrant) which terminated between 1922 and 1924. Similar awards were not made in the case of officers.
Mr. HASLAMasked the Minister of Pensions whether he has reviewed all the circumstances of the claim of Mrs. Teesdale, of Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, to a widow's pension; whether her claim that the disability, for which her husband was allowed a pension of 80 per cent., was a contributory cause of his death has been fully considered; and whether an appeal to the tribunal can be allowed?
1380W
§ Major TRYONThis case has been carefully examined on several occasions, and I am advised that it cannot be certified that the gastritis and facial injuries for which Mr. Teesdale was pensioned played any part in bringing about his death, which was due to a wholly different disease. A claim to pension on the ground that a pensioned disability was merely a contributory cause of death in a case in which other ailments admittedly operated, is not one on which an appeal lies to the tribunal.