Orders of the Day — Contributory Pensions Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 30 June 1925.

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Photo of Mr Frank Briant Mr Frank Briant , Lambeth North

This Amendment seems to me to prove what I have already anticipated, namely, that this Bill will create a great sense of injustice. Only those who know intimately the sufferings of the poor people can fully realise how great will be the sense of injustice which you are creating by this Bill. Take the case of two widows who are neighbours. One will receive a pension exactly the same as the one who has to apply to the Poor Law guardians for relief, and I am sure that that will cause a sense of injustice which will be very dangerous indeed. I think the Minister would not find it a pleasant task if he had to explain to the woman who has been paying into insurance for years why she is not receiving the same benefit as her next door neighbour.

Most of us who believe in pensions for widows do so because we want the children to be carefully looked after and we want to relieve the widow from the necessity of going out to work. That is supposed to be the broad basis of this Bill. We do not want these women to go out to work, but we want them to perform the service of looking after their children. Everybody in this House recognises that it is the duty of a mother to look after her children, and it is not economy or in the interest of the State if she is not enabled by the provisions of this Bill to carry out that duty, and the injustice created will be intense.