§ 61. Mr. Stanbrookasked the Secretary of State for Defence how many widows of ex-Service men in each branch of the Armed Forces who left service before 1st September 1950 were not entitled to draw Service widow's pension; and what it would cost to include them within the scheme.
§ Mr. JuddAs I have said in reply to previous Questions on this subject, no records are available from which accurate estimates can be made. About two years ago an assumption was made that there were about 30,000 widows in this category for all three Services. To assess110W the cost of paying pensions under current arrangements to these widows it would be necessary to know the rank held by the husband on his retirement or death and the length of his service; I regret that all this information is not available.