HC Deb 26 April 1939 vol 346 cc1169-70W
Mr. Acland

asked the Minister of Labour what is the practice recommended to Unemployment Assistance Boards when considering how much to deduct in respect of a wounds and disability pension which is partly paid in respect of a wife or child?

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

The Board are required by the Unemployment Assistance Act to disregard the first pound per week of any wounds or disability pension. Supplementary allowances in respect of dependants, which do not constitute part of a disability pension as defined in the Act, are set off in the Board's assessments was impracticable, and the result of the other inquiries has been similar.

The importance, from the point of view of migration, of instituting reciprocal arrangements between the United Kingdom and the Dominions in such matters has been recognised at Imperial Conferences and by the Oversea Settlement Board in their report of May, 1938 (Cmd. 5766). The reason why it has not yet been found practicable is, largely, that it must depend upon the existence in the Dominions of schemes comparable to those in operation in the United Kingdom.

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