Is this not the section which deals with certain fixed pensions?
Committee on Finance. - Pensions (Increase) Bill, 1959—Committee and Final Stages.
Sections 1 to 3, inclusive, agreed to.
SECTION 4.
Question proposed: "That Section 4 stand part of the Bill."
Yes.
Are these fixed pensions going to be fixed sums in future rather than the fixed pensions plus the percentage addition?
They are the fixed sums plus the percentage addition and they will apply to all future pensioners.
That is what I mean.
Yes.
Future pensioners will be on the new fixed sums so calculated by the addition of this percentage?
That is right.
Question put and agreed to.
Sections 5 and 6 agreed to.
SECTION 7.
Question proposed: "That Section 7 stand part of the Bill".
This is a limitation section, is that not so?
There is a limit in every section. It deals with various categories of State pensioners.
Does this not provide that the pension as increased does not exceed an equivalent pension calculated on the average salary under the 1952 rate?
That covers every category.
Yes.
Question put and agreed to.
Sections 8 to 10, inclusive, agreed to.
SECTION 11.
Question proposed: "That Section 11 stand part of the Bill."
Can the Minister give us the total amount payable to this class of pensioner at the moment? Has he got the figure handy?
I am sorry; I have not got the figure.
Would the Minister mind sending it to me in a note, in due course?
Yes, we shall do that.
Thank you.
Question put and agreed to.
Section 12 agreed to.
SCHEDULE.
Question proposed: "That the Schedule be the Schedule to the Bill."
I wonder could the Minister conveniently find out the figure, about which I have been asking him, that is, the number of persons who fall in this category of persons who have retired since the vital date in this Bill and the date of the basic increase in Civil Service pensions of 1958? Would that involve a lot of research?
I want to be quite clear about what the Opposition want. No one who has retired since 1952 is getting less than the corresponding pensioner, identical colleague, who left before 1952. So, I think what the Deputy has in mind is how many pensioners left the Civil Service between 1952 and to date. Is that right?
No, —and the date in 1956 on which there was an increase made in the basic rates of the whole Civil Service.
What I could do would be to send to the Deputy the various categories of Civil Servants broken into categories one to 200 and so on, between 1952 and 1956.
If it would not be too much trouble, I should like to have it.
Question put and agreed to.
Bill reported without amendment.
Agreed to take remaining Stages to-day.
Bill received for final consideration.
Question proposed: "That the Bill do now pass."
In clarification of my request, I might mention the type of case I have in mind. What I am looking for includes the ex-Chief Inspector of the Department of Agriculture. It was drawn to my attention that many ex-officers of the Department of Agriculture came within this gap. His case would be typical of the case I have in mind.
Question put and agreed to.