I am quite certain there may have been abuses. Cases will slip through in spite of precautions, and I am certain that, arising out of the more wide and more generous provisions of this Act, many borderline cases will come forward for determination, and that the determination of those borderline cases will be very much more difficult than they were under the preceding code. Every alteration in the old age pensions law in this country has found the Appeal Department choked up with cases, and there has been a glut of such cases within the last six or 12 months. All these cases of first appeals have been sifted and principles laid down which will enable the local pensions officers to determine for themselves whether or not an appeal properly lies from the decision of the Old Age Pensions Committee. It is not a question of staff at all, because you could not possibly increase overnight a staff in the Pensions Appeal Section of the Local Government Department. If Deputy Morrissey was the authority on old age pensions matters that he claims to be, that is one thing it would have taught him—that you cannot get the experienced officers to deal with the cases of appeal that may come before them overnight. It requires a considerable amount of experience and a considerable amount of training, before they can exercise the judicial functions between the Minister on the one hand and the old age pensions applicants on the other. Therefore, as I said, it is not a case of staff, it is simply a case that the experienced people, and the people with training, must have time to consider all the aspects of the cases that come before them, and to lay down general principles which will make the subsequent administration of the Act easier and more expeditious.
With the change in the law, it is inevitable that there must be a considerable increase in the number of applicants and a consequent delay in dealing with them. What has been the position? In 1927 the number of pensions payable on the 31st March of that year was 114,185. On the 31st December, 1928, the number had increased to
116,282. On 31st December, 1930, it decreased to 115,436, and on the 31st December, 1931, under the administration of the Party opposite, which Deputy Morrissey now supports, the number had declined to 114,756. By the end of that year, and it will be remembered that we just came in at the tail-end of the year—the number had declined to 113,619. Thanks to the operation of this Act, the number had increased on 31st December, 1932, to 120,246, and it is anticipated, because of the more generous provisions of the old age pensions law now, that the number of persons in receipt of old age pensions will have considerably increased on the 31st December, 1933. Is it any wonder that we have had delay when the number of beneficiaries has been increased in that manner, and particularly when the number of persons eligible for blind pensions has substantially increased? The determination of an application for a blind pension must be, in any circumstances a difficult matter, unless the House is prepared to say that a man should get a pension merely because he says he is blind, when, in fact, he may not be blind at all. He may be merely weak-sighted, but not blind. If one were to grant that, I suppose we would have, certainly, one-fifth of the whole population of the country between the ages of 30 and 70 eligible for blind pensions in addition to those who are over 70 years of age.
These are Acts that you cannot administer laxly. Either a person is entitled to a pension or he is not. Either he must fulfil all the conditions laid down for the securing of a pension or he should not get the pension at all. The cost of the service is so enormous that you have got to safeguard the Exchequer against abuse. In the year 1931-32 the expenditure on the cost of the Old Age Pensions Act was £2,702,000. In the few months of last year that the new Act was in operation the cost had risen to £3,027,000. For the present year it is likely to exceed £3,250,000. So that the recent alteration of the law has cost the State almost £500,000 and has given to the elderly poor in the community a corresponding advantage, an advantage in which the farmers particularly have shared.
Deputy Moore raised an interesting point and asked what would it cost if we were to give the old age pension to all people over 70 without any qualification as to means. It would cost almost £4,500,000, certainly over £4,430,000. I am afraid that until we settle the economic war and give men back their markets that is a burden we cannot shoulder. With regard to the question of the determination of blind pension cases, I shall have the matter looked into in my Department to see if something cannot be done to expedite it. I am afraid it is going to be a difficult matter from the point of view of getting the medical skill necessary to determine those cases with any sort of accuracy and reliability.
