andMcEllistrim asked the Minister for Defence what amendments have been made in the regulations governing the assessment of means for special allowance purposes; and if it is proposed to introduce legislation to amend the Army Pensions Acts to provide for (1) the removal of the differentiation in the appropriate annual sum between persons qualified for special allowances who were married before and those married after the 30th September, 1942, and (2) the removal of the time limit for the receipt of applications for service (1917-1921) medals, the due award of which would enable the recipients to apply for special allowances.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Special Allowances : Amendment of Army Pensions Acts.
29.
The directions governing the assessment of means for special allowance purposes are being amended, with effect from 4th November, 1958, to provide that:— (a) the yearly value of free lodgings or a house free of rent will be at £3 18s. for all areas, instead of, as at present, £6 10s. in an urban area which is a county borough and £5 4s. in any other urban area; (b) the profit from contributions to their parents of children, over and under 18 years of age, will be assessed on a reduced scale and (c) where free lodging and maintenance reserved under a deed of transfer is established to impose hardship on the provider, its value will not be assessed as means.
It is proposed to introduce at an early date legislation to amend the Army Pensions Acts :— (1) to provide that for special allowance purposes the "appropriate annual sum" applicable to a person married before the 1st October, 1942, shall also apply to a person married after the 30th September, 1942, and (2) to remove the time-limit for applications for the service (1917-1921) medal, the due award of which would, subject to medical and means tests, qualify the recipients for special allowances.
When the Minister is making these adjustments, will he make some adjustment to ensure that, where a disabled man's wife goes out as a charwoman in order to supplement the family income to provide for a family disabled by ill-health, that will not result in the man's special allowance being promptly reduced by the amount of his charwoman-wife's earnings?
These allowances were introduced only to relieve cases of grave hardship and it has always been the principle that the income of the family was the income that was to be taken into account. It would be a radical departure to do what the Deputy suggests.
Has the Minister any discretion in this?
No.
Surely the Minister ought to amend the legislation to give him discretion to provide that, where a man is himself disabled and has sick children in his family, if the wife goes out to do a bit of charing to earn a little additional money, that will not be taken off the man's special allowance.
The same could apply to old age pensions.
I do not know what it could apply to, but it seems to me to be a most iniquitous arrangement that if a woman earns 15/- as a charwoman, Dáil Éireann should take the money from her disabled husband.
The means have to be assessed in accordance with the rules laid down.
If the rules are wrong, ought not the Minister to consider amending them? It is most unfair, when such a woman goes out to earn 15/-, that it should be taken out of her husband's allowance.