HC Deb 19 November 1940 vol 365 cc1836-9W
Mr. Malcolm MacMillan

asked the Minister of Pensions, whether he will consult with the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the purposes of introducing amendment of the Pensions Acts for the compensation of widows and other dependants of men who died in the services and in respect of whom no pension or allowance is at present payable by the Ministry for various reasons, in order to obviate the need for these people to have recourse to public assistance on general grounds?

Sir W. Womersley

A revised Royal Warrant for pensions for disablement and death resulting from service in the present war was issued on 29th June last, after prolonged consideration of the whole subject by my Statutory Advisory Committee. If the hon. Member has any particular difficulty or case in mind and will let me know of it, I shall be happy to consider it and communicate with him.

Mr. MacMillan

asked the Minister of Pensions, whether he will consult with the Service Departments in order to make it a rule that men being medically examined for service on calling-up shall be asked to give full particulars of physical or mental disorders from which they have suffered, in view of the facts contained in cases recently laid before him by the hon. Member for the Western Isles, in which men were passed fully fit for active service and later became casualties but were refused pension or their parents refused allowance, and also in view of the danger to the health of other men sharing confined service quarters with these men; and if he will review his decisions in respect of the cases mentioned and similar others?

Sir W. Womersley

I understand from my right hon. Friend the Minister of Labour that the instructions to medical boards examining men before entry into the Forces provide for full inquiry of the men examined as to their medical history and particulars of illnesses from which they have suffered. My hon. Friend will appreciate that it must rest with the men to give correct answers to these inquiries. I will look carefully into any individual cases referred to me by the hon. Member on the question of pension.

Mr. MacMillan

asked the Minister of Pensions, whether, in the case of men discharged as unfit for further active service with disabilities from which they are not likely to recover for a long period of convalescence in which they are unable to earn a living, arrangements will be made for their support until able to take work, and for the support of their families; and whether he is yet in a position to state the Ministry's decision in the case submitted to him a month ago relating to a discharged naval service man in such a position who is unwilling to apply for public assistance?

Sir W. Womersley

If the hon. Member will give me details of the particular case to which he refers, but which at present cannot be traced, I will look into it and communicate with him. I would point out, however, in general that a man invalided from the Armed Forces on account of a disability which is attributable to his Service receives an award of pension appropriate to his disablement, but my Department has no power to make an award in respect of a condition for which Service is in no way responsible.

Mr. MacMillan

asked the Minister of Pensions whether he will review, in the light of the rise in the cost of living in relation to fixed incomes, the scales of pension and allowances payable to pensioners and dependants of pensioners of the Great War of 1914–18, with a view to easing their difficulties?

Sir W. Womersley

I would refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave on 8th October to a similar Question by the hon. Member for Westhoughton (Mr. Rhys Davies), of which I am sending him a copy.

Mr. Rhys Davies

asked the Minister of Pensions whether he is aware that Driver William Barratt, No. T.67590, Royal Army Service Corps, 18, Cinnamon Avenue, Hindley Green, Wigan, enlisted voluntarily on the 26th July, 1938; was called up for service on the 2nd September, 1939; was sent to France on the 10th September, 1939; complained of being unwell on the 21st September, 1939; returned to the Harefield Hospital, Middlesex, on the 12th November, 1939, where he died of tuberculosis-meningitis on the 4th April, 1940; that he leaves a widow and four young children; that an appeal for pension has been disallowed by his department; that the man was not insured for widow's pension and children allowances, and that the family is now on Poor Law relief; and will he reconsider his decision in this case?

Sir W. Womersley

I am having further inquiries made into this case and will communicate with the hon. Member when these are complete. The hon. Member appears to have been misinformed as to the position regarding widow's contributory pension. I am informed that pension of 24s. a week in respect of Mrs. Barratt and her children began on 2nd July, 1940, on cessation of Army family allowances, and is still in payment.

Sir Smedley Crooke

asked the Minister of Pensions whether the assessments for specific injuries resulting from the present war have yet been restored from the peace-time basis on which they stood to the higher rates commensurate with wartime service which are still in issue to 1914–18 war pensioners in respect of the same specific injuries?

Sir W. Womersley

In many cases the assessments for specific injuries which have been applicable to service casualties since 1923 are already the same as those for similar injuries due to Great War service. At the same time, as I informed the hon. Member for Stoke (Mr. E. Smith) on 16th October, certain improvements may be made in other rates of assessment as a result of the recommendations of the committee of experts who have had the whole matter under review and which are at present under consideration.