Skip to main content

Clause 18—(Pensions Of Limited Duration)

Volume 465: debated on Tuesday 31 May 1949

The text on this page has been created from Hansard archive content, it may contain typographical errors.

I beg to move, in page 15, line 37, to leave out "reason of her marriage," and to insert "virtue of this subsection."

We have now come to the dependent children and the series of Amendments to Clause 18 deal with them.

I want to raise a point which is very much the same as that mentioned earlier. It seemed rather ridiculous that a dependent child should have a pension taken away in those circumstances. I rise to reinforce what was said by the hon. Member for Oldham (Mr. Hale) just now. I would ask the right hon. Gentleman to have a word with the Law Officers on the meaning of the word "cohabit." I think the hon. Member for Oldham has mentioned something which is quite important. I remember that in one of the earliest cases I ever had at the Bar, a woman was charged with taking a pension while cohabiting. It shows that different expressions can be used to describe those circumstances. It is desirable to use the same phrases to describe the same thing. If the right hon. Gentleman will consult the Law Officers, he might save a lot of trouble later.

Amendment agreed to.

Further Amendments made: In page 15, leave out line 39, and insert:

"(b) the Treasury are satisfied at a subsequent date that the marriage or cohabitation has come to an end or that there are compassionate grounds for permitting the pension to enure for her benefit notwithstanding the marriage."

In page 15, leave out line 42, and insert "that date."—[ Mr. Glenvil Hall.]

Clause, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.