I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. There are five Army Pensions Acts which deal with disablement due to Army service and they are the Army Pensions Acts, 1923, 1927, 1932, 1937 and 1941. The purpose of the present Bill is to amend and extend the provisions of those Acts. The Bill amends and extends the Acts in five different ways: (1) By extending the time limit within which disablement caused by disease attributable to service may be eligible for pension. (2) By increasing the rates of pension payable for disablement due to injury received, or disease contracted, during the emergency period. (3) By bringing members of the Army Nursing Service within the scope of the Army Pensions Acts. (4) By making dependents, other than widows and children, of deceased personnel eligible for pensions. (5) By providing special allowances for persons who are in possession of military service certificates under the Military Service Pensions Acts of 1924 or 1934 in respect of service during Easter Week, 1916, or who are in receipt of a wound or disability pension in respect of a wound received or a disease contracted during the said week and who, in addition, are incapable of self-support either by reason of age or permanent infirmity of mind or body. Such, briefly and generally, are the five main objects sought to be achieved by the present Bill.
Under Section 10 of the Army pensions Act, 1927, a person suffering from a disablement caused by disease attributable to service was entitled to a pension provided that the disablement was 80 per cent. at the date of examination by the Army Pensions Board, and was contracted before the 30th September, 1924. The Army Pensions Act of 1937 amended this provision in two respects, (a) by allowing the disablement up to the 1st July, 1938, to reach 80 per cent.; and (b) by reducing the minimum percentage eligible for pension from 80 per cent. to 50 per cent. in cases which were refused solely on the grounds that the disablement was less than 80 per cent. at the date of examination by the Army Pensions Board. In both instances, however, the qualification remained that the disease must have been contracted during the period commencing 1st April, 1922, and ending on the 30th September, 1924. In other words, if the disease was contracted after the 30th September, 1924, it was not covered by the Acts no matter how grave the resultant disablement.
The omission in the Acts to cover that period from the 1st October, 1924, onwards has frequently been the subject of adverse comment in this House, but hitherto we have not been able to cover it, because the view was taken that under the sheltered conditions of peace-time soldiering any disease which may have arisen could scarcely be said to arise out of any particular hardship, but would simply be an incident which would have arisen in any circumstances and not necessarily out of Army service. This argument, however, cannot be applied to the conditions under which the Army is serving since the proclamation of a state of emergency. Those conditions, indeed, closely resemble those obtaining during the previous statutory period from the 1st April, 1922, to the 30th September, 1924, and, if anything, the present conditions are more arduous and strenuous. Accordingly, this Bill provides pensions, both disability and married, for disablement due to disease attributable to service when the disease is contracted during the emergency period beginning on the 3rd September, 1939.
This is the effect of Section 3, sub-sections (1), (2) and (3) of the present Bill. These sub-sections apply the provisions of the 1927 Act to disease contracted during the emergency period, but Section 6 deals with the same subject and applies the extensions of the 1937 Act to all such cases. Under the 1927 Act the minimum degree of disablement due to disease attributable to service had to be 80 per cent. before it could be pensionable, but the Act of 1937 reduced that minimum to 50 per cent. Section 6 also makes the minimum degree to be 50 per cent. for pension purposes. The position, therefore, is that if a person on examination by the Army Pensions Board is found to be 80 per cent. or over disabled due to disease he will be entitled to the rate set out in Parts I and II of Section 3, sub-section (5) of this Bill. If the pension awarded be of a temporary character, and if on subsequent examination he is found to be less than 80 per cent., but at least 50 per cent. disabled, he will be entitled to a final pension of £1 per week, but if, on the other hand, at that first examination he is found to be less than 80 per cent. but at least 50 per cent. disabled, he will be entitled to 15/- a week final pension.
The second feature of this Bill is that it increases the rates of pension payable in respect of disability whether due to disease or injury contracted during the emergency period. The effect here is best shown by the case of a private soldier totally disabled. Under the old rates his pension would be 26/- a week with, in the case of a married man, a married pension of 5/- a week. The new rates will give such a man 42/- a week with, if married, a further married pension of 10/- a week. Both the disability and married pensions for other degrees of disablement are correspondingly increased. In effect the increased rates are virtually those operative under the Army Pensions Act, 1923, which dealt with the active service of that period. Moreover, under the various schemes of compensation for injuries sustained by members of such voluntary organisations as the L.D.F. or the A.R.P. service, total disablement is assessed at 30/- a week with, in the case of a married man, 7/6 a week for his wife and 4/- a week for each child, within a maximum of 72/6 a week including any allowance in respect of loss of earnings. Hence, excluding the payment in respect of earning capacity it will be seen that the new rates of pension payable to a married soldier totally disabled, compare favourably with the allowances payable under the schemes to a married man totally disabled with a wife and three children. These new rates of pension are effected by Section 3, sub-section (5) of the Bill which, it will be noted in passing, only deals with cases occurring during the emergency period thus leaving intact the application of the old rates to cases pensioned before the commencement of the emergency.
Little need be said about the third object of the Bill—to bring the members of the Army Nursing Service within the scope of the Acts during the period of the emergency. The Sisters were previously covered by the Defence Forces pensions schemes which fix pension in relation to service; but they were not covered by the Army Pensions Acts in respect of wound or disease contracted during and arising out of service. It is only just and equitable that the members of the Army Nursing Service should now be afforded the protection of those Acts.
The fourth object of the Bill is to make provision for the dependents of deceased personnel other than their widows and children. The Army Pensions Act of 1923 made provision not only for widows and children of deceased personnel, but also for their dependents, such as their parents and grandparents, together with their brothers and sisters when permanently incapacitated. The Act of 1927, however, which dealt with peacetime conditions, provided only, as far as personnel discharged after 1st October, 1924, were concerned, for the widows and children of deceased personnel; and now in the present Bill we are reverting to the old position under the 1923 Act by providing for the parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, as well as for the widows and orphans of deceased personnel. The Bill, however, differs in two important respects from the previous Acts. In the first place, it provides for more than one allowance in respect of totally dependent relatives, and in the second, it provides an allowance instead of a gratuity to persons who were not totally, but who can be shown to have been mainly, dependent on a deceased person. The allowances provided by the Bill will be £52 a year in the case of an officer, and £26 a year in that of a soldier. These allowances and the conditions appertaining thereto are covered by Section 5, sub-section (5) of the Bill.
Finally, the fifth purpose of the Bill is to deal with the very special problem created by the passage of time and by economic circumstances of men and women who fought during Easter Week, 1916, and who are not incapable of self-support by reason of age or permanent infirmity. Section 7 applies to every person who is in possession of a military service certificate in respect of service during Easter Week, 1916, or who is in receipt of a disability pension in respect of a wound or injury received or a disability contracted during that week, provided that the person is incapable of self-support by reason of age or permanent infirmity of mind or body and that his or her yearly means from all sources do not exceed a certain sum. For a single man or woman that sum will be £78 a year; if married, £97 10s. od. a year, and for each child the sum is raised by £10 8s. 0d. a year. In other words, if a single person be totally destitute he or she will be entitled to £78 a year, or if married to £97 10s. 0d. a year and £10 8s. 0d. a year will be added in respect of each child. On the other hand, if the person be not totally destitute, but be in receipt of a service or disability pension, his means will be brought up to the scales of allowances mentioned. It will thus be seen that every person qualifying under this section will be entitled from all sources, if single, to 30/- a week, if married to 37/6 a week, and to an additional sum of 4/- a week in respect of each child.
Section 8, 9 and 10 are administrative provisions. In some cases which will fall under this Bill ex-gratia grants have already been made on the understanding that no statutory provision had been or would be made by way of compensation. Now that the cases will be covered statutorily by this Bill, if it becomes law, it is only equitable that power should be vested in the Minister to recover such grants if he deems fit. That is done by Section 8 of the Bill. Again, Section 9 prevents the widow or child of an officer from receiving a double pension in respect of the same bereavement—one under the present Bill and the other under schemes made under the Defence Forces (Pensions) Acts. Finally, Section 10 is simply intended to relieve the Army Pensions Board of any work which is not strictly of a medical character. As the Acts stand at present, a fairly large volume of work, in which no medical considerations arise, has to be referred to the board, and that reference occupies a proportion of the board's time, which could otherwise be devoted to work of a strictly medical nature. Hence, as we anticipate that under this Bill we shall have a very large number of applications, and as we are anxious that they should be dealt with as speedily as possible, power is being taken not to refer to the board any matter in which we consider that their investigation would serve no useful purpose.