§ Mr. Richard Pageasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he is satisfied with the arrangements for payment of Christmas bonus in respect of retirement pensioners' wives who are aged over 60 years and not in receipt of either a retirement pension or a dependency addition.
§ Dr. BoysonDepartmental instructions were clarified in 1981 and I am satisfied with the present arrangements. A very small number of such wives had claims wrongly turned down in earlier years and corrective action was taken in the cases identified. There is still a possibility that some may have been missed. If any do come to light, the Department would like to know about them and payment for any earlier years will be made where the non-payment was due to departmental error.