§ Mr. BowdenTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what plans he has to amend the civil service pension schemes to include as pensionable service years served by new entrants joining the service as temporary staff during the second world war, in cases where those staff became established after the war;
(2) what would be the cost of counting as pensionable all war time service by civil servants entering the service during the second world war who became established after the end of the war;
(3) what representations he has received on the pension arrangements applying to war-time service by home civil servants.
§ Mr. PortilloI have no plans to amend the civil service pension scheme to allow unestablished service given before 14 July 1949, including that of temporary staff recruited during the war, to reckon in full for pension purposes. I have received no recent representations specifically about temporary staff, but do from time to time receive correspondence about unestablished service generally.
The most recent available estimate of costs is that, even if pre-July 1949 unestablished service were to count in full in the calculation of pension benefits only, both past and future lump sums being left out of the account, the total cost over the next 25 years for the civil service alone would be of the order of £400 million.