Budget Grants.
asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will allocate a portion of the Budget Grant-in-Aid of the poor rate towards adequate out-relief for widows with dependent children and for aged persons past work who have not reached the age for a pension?
It is not proposed to make such an allocation.
Customs and Excise (Examining Officers).
asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that those officers of Customs and Excise who entered the service as assistants of Customs, and were promoted to the grade of second class examining officers of Customs, became entitled on such promotion to twenty-four days' leave annually, increasing to thirty days on attaining a salary of £200; that paragraph 255 of the Hobhouse Committee's Report states that, while it would not be equitable to reduce the leave to which any officer is at present actually entitled, there is no reason why, on promotion after amalgamation, he should not be required to accept the amount of leave assigned to the class to which he is promoted; and that the Board of Customs and Excise, in General Order 5/1913, paragraph 3, in interpreting the aforementioned paragraph 255, substitute for the words actually entitled the words actually in receipt of, thereby reading into the Committee's Report a meaning contrary to the spirit of their recommendation that only on promotion after amalgamation should an officer's scale of leave be interfered with; and whether he will instruct the Board of Customs and Excise to apply to the officers concerned the scale of leave assigned to them as second class examining officers, and thus ensure that their leave shall be thirty days annually on attaining a salary of £200?
After the fullest consideration I am unable to accept the suggestion that the intention of the Amalgamation Committee in this matter has been wrongly interpreted. The right to additional leave under the old organisation was contingent on reaching a salary of £200 on the scale then in force. This scale disappeared as the result of the reorganisation. Had the Committee intended to guarantee to officers a prospective right to additional leave they would certainly have made precise recommendations as to the mode in which under the new organisation such right should mature.
Old Age Pensions.
asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland the reasons for disallowing John Maguire, of Drumhoura, the pension of 5s. per week awarded him by the Mullahoran sub-committee, county Cavan, on the 11th December, 1913?
John Maguire's claim was disallowed by the Local Government Board on appeal on the ground that they were not satisfied that his means were less than £31 10s. a year. He resides on a well-stocked and well-cropped farm of twelve acres, which it was alleged he had assigned to his son, but it would appear that he has retained a life interest in the farm.
MEDICAL BENEFIT.
asked the hon. Member for St. George's-in-the-East, as representing the Insurance Commissioners, whether he has received any resolutions from insurance committees to the effect that medical benefit has been unduly restricted by the Regulations of the Insurance Commissioners, and asking for an extension of service; and, if so, what action, if any, he proposes to take in the matter?
Representations of the character referred to have been received from one insurance committee, but on this point I am unable to add anything to the reply given by my right hon. Friend to the hon. Member for North Islington on the 13th March, 1913.