Ministry of Pensions.

Part of Class Viii. – in the House of Commons at on 13 July 1927.

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Photo of Mr John Hills Mr John Hills , Ripon

I want to raise a case which, I believe, is one of the few in which, as I submit, a mistake has been made. I am quite sure I can get the sympathy of the Committee, and I hope I shall succeed in persuading my right hon. Friend of the justice of my conten- tion. The case in question is that of an officer in the Durham Light Infantry who served on the Somme and lost his left foot, and then lost the left leg below the knee. In 1917 he was given a wound pension of £100 a year, and no question arises about that. In 1918 he was discharged as unfit for further service, and given retired pay of 7s a day, in addition to his wound pension. The total amount of the retired pay and wound pension he then received, plus the 20 per cent. addition given, was £273 4s. a year. This amount he received until last year, when he got a notice to say the retired pay would be reduced, and instead of getting £273 4s. a year he was at once cut down to £105 a year, being £100 a year for wound pension and £5 for retired pay, in place of £127 retired pay. I claim on his behalf that, quite apart from all other questions, his retired pay was made permanent on the 15th January, 1920. Upon that day this notice was sent to him: Sir, I am directed to acquaint you that you have been granted in respect of your disability retired pay at the rate of 7s. a day from the 5th January, 1920, in addition to your wound pension. The notice goes on to tell him that the Paymaster-General will pay his retired pay. In this notice, which is partly in print and partly in manuscript, the word "temporary" is struck out. The notice runs "retired pay" and not "temporary retired pay." Where it says that the pay runs from the 5th January, the words "to the" are struck out, and so no date for the termination of this retired pay is given. The officer read that, as I think anybody or any Court of Law would interpret it, as being a permanent award of 7s. a day from a certain date with no date given for the termination or for the review of the award. The notice does not state that the amount was subject to review. The notice is signed by the appropriate officer, "William Withington, Director-General of Awards," it is initialled in the corner, and it has all the marks of a formal document. I think my right hon. Friend will agree that if that is a final award it can only be reviewed under Article 4 of the Royal Warrant of 1920, and that according to Article 4 the only facts that give occasion for review can be summed up as fraud or error. In this case I am certain no fraud will be suggested, and I do not think error can be suggested. If I am right in that, this officer is entitled to 7s. a day retired pay for life. I said just now that he was told his retired pay would be reduced. He received a document in 1926 saying that his retired pay would be cut down from 7s. per day to £ a year and that document states: It has, however, been decided that it will not be possible to regard your pensionable disability, gunshot wound, left foot (amputation) as seriously affecting your capacity for earning your living in civil life beyond the 29th March, 1927. You will, as from the following day, be eligible only for an award of retired pay at the rate of £5 per year in addition to your wound pension of £100 a year. Assuming that I am wrong and that that award was subject to review, it is reviewed on the ground that this officer is earning his living in civil life, and has not been seriously affected. This officer was wounded in the first attack on the Somme in 1916; his foot was amputated in France, he afterwards came over to England, and, in 1921, after a series of operations of a smaller character he lost half of his lower leg, and below the knee there is now only half the leg left. This man has never been in regular employment since that time. He walks with a stick and is only capable of walking about two miles. He has been refused employment over and over again by employers who said they would gladly have employed him if he had not been incapacitated. He is debarred by his injury from following the occupations for which he is fitted. In former years he was employed in the Dominions, and he has worked as a traveller. It is clear that he cannot get employment, and surely it cannot be argued that a man who has lost one-half of his lower leg is not seriously incapacitated. I cannot believe that the Minister of Pensions or any doctor would say that this man was not seriously incapacitated, and I am certain no business man would say so. This man is seriously incapacitated. I have refrained from arguing about the law on this question, but I base my case on two points. In the first place, the award of 1920 was a final award and not subject to review upon the ground of this man's earning capacity. My second point is that, even if this case were, subject to review, it is not in accordance with common sense to say that a man who has lost his lower leg is not incapacitated.

May I now give a few more facts. This man got an original pension, plus retired pay, of £273 a year. On the strength of that he married, and he has three children. On the strength of that pension he furnished a house on the instalment system. I contend that the State has no right to give a man a pension of that kind and then cut it down. His pension is now £125 a year, and on that he has to keep his home. Even if this man was paid too much at first, and I do not admit that he was, you have no right to give him that pension for something like nine years, and then cut it down to a fraction of what it was. I hope the Minister of Pensions will recognise that this is a case in which justice and equity demand that he should restore this pension.

I have a further small point only to make upon light metal limbs. I listened with great interest to what has been said on this question. I have here quotations from letters in 232 cases, all from soldiers who have received the light metal legs. They are mostly cases of amputation below the knee, and they all express the very great benefit which the light metal leg has given to them. One of these soldiers says in his letter: I wear the leg all day without pain. It is 2 lbs. lighter, and I do not get the heavy drag of the old wooden leg. Another of these soldiers writes: All trouble ceased with the wearing of a metal leg, and I have a better pull on life. My walking efficiency has increased by 100 per cent. One case has been brought before me in which a light metal leg has been refused and the man has been given a wooden leg. I think the same generosity should be exercised in this case. I am convinced from the information which has been given to me that light metal limbs are of very great benefit to the soldiers. I hope in future the soldiers will be given a choice in all these cases, and will be allowed to have light metal limbs if they wish to have them.