§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many recipients of war pensions are currently serving prison sentences; and what payments of war pensions have been made in respect of those people. [59204]
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§ Mr. TimmsThe administration of the War Pensions Agency is a matter for its Chief Executive, Mr. Gordon Hextall. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Gordon Hextall to Mr. Michael Hancock, dated 12 November 1998:
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the number of War Pensioners currently serving prison sentences and the payments being made to them.It is the Secretary of State's normal policy that payments of War Disablement Pension (WDP) are forfeited during imprisonment. This is because it is considered inappropriate to make a payment from public funds to someone who has committed a criminal offence and is being maintained at public expense. On release the WDP is normally restored and, to assist with resettlement, it is the normal policy that arrears of one year's basic pension (or arrears for the period of imprisonment if less than a year) are paid. The Secretary of State also has discretion, in exceptional circumstances, to continue payment whilst a war pensioner is in prison.Unfortunately statistics of war pensioners currently serving prison sentences are not kept as a matter of course. To identify such cases would require a manual analysis of the case files relating to all 254,209 War Pensioners. The information could therefore be obtained only at disproportionate cost.I hope that you find my reply helpful.