asked the Minister for Finance if, in view of the increased cost of living, he will consider making retrospective, to 1935, the current cost-of-living bonus already being paid to retired civil servants but which is retrospective only to 1940.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Cost-of-Living Bonus.
Mr. Coburn
The Deputy is presumably thinking of the effect of the Superannuation Act, 1947, which authorised the reassessment of pensions that had been awarded while Civil Service bonus was stabilised as an emergency measure, viz., from 1st July, 1940, to 31st October, 1946. During that period civil servants received ordinary bonus related to a cost-of-living figure of 185 until 31st December, 1944, and thereafter of 210; in addition, an emergency bonus was paid at varying rates. As required by the Superannuation Acts, the pensions of all officers retiring within that period were based on the actual retiring remuneration.
The Act of 1947, however, allowed all such pension awards to be revised in relation to the actual cost-of-living figure at the date of retirement, subject to the limitation that in no case could the pension be readjusted by reference to a cost-of-living figure higher than 270. Thus the Act merely enabled an equitable adjustment to be made—when Emergency conditions had passed—by raising these pensions to the amounts that would have been payable on the basis of the actual cost-of-living figure at the date of retirement subject, of course, to the overriding figure of 270.
Persons retiring between 1935 and 1940 were pensioned on their entire remuneration, including the full bonus payable in relation to the cost-of-living figure prevailing at the dates of their retirement. All pensions of less than £450 a year were increased under the Pensions (Increase) Act, 1950, and I regret that I cannot see my way to granting any further increase in the cases of the pensioners the Deputy has in mind.