§ Mr. A. Edwardsasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he will make a statement regarding the unequal assessment of claims for war damage and give an assurance that replacement costs will be the criterion in final settlement?
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§ Mr. DaltonIn accordance with the provisions of the War Damage Act and the regulations made thereunder, claims under Part II of the Act are assessed on the basis of values at the time of the damage and not on the cost of replacement at the time when the payments may be made.
§ Mr. N. Bowerasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the number of war damage claims in respect of cost of furniture removal, which have been refused wholly or in part, because of the non-production of receipts for such removal; in how many such cases there was long delay in settlement, thus increasing the difficulty of obtaining receipts from small furniture removers who may have joined the Army; and whether, in such cases, since only a small amount of money is involved, he will give applicants the benefit of the doubt and enable them to receive full payment?
§ Mr. H. MorrisonI have been asked to reply. I am advised that claims in respect of the cost of removing furniture consequent upon enemy action are not admissible under the War Damage Act, 1941. Local authorities have, however, been authorised to repay to householders such expenses reasonably incurred within a limit of £s necessary for each authority to satisfy itself by the production of receipts or otherwise that the amount claimed was actually spent, and that the expenditure was reasonable. I am not able to say in how many cases failure to produce satisfactory evidence has led to the rejection of claims, but I have no reason to think that local authorities have not dealt expeditiously with claims and exercised their discretion sympathetically.