The main purpose of the Bill is to provide concessions in regard to married pensions and allowances, and to enable Budgetary increases in benefits under the Army Pensions Acts to be prescribed by regulations. It also effects a number of amendments to the Acts which are regarded as necessary.
Except for persons with pre-Truce Service, in whose case a marriage contracted before the 5th August, 1953, qualifies for benefit, a pensioner who marries after the date of his wound or the date of discharge, is not entitled to a married pension under the Acts. Section 2 now provides that a pensioner who marries at any time will be entitled to a married pension.
The Army Pensions Acts at present require that the death of a pensioner must be due solely to his pensionable disablement before allowances can be granted to his widow and children. Although the words "due solely" are given as wide an interpretation as possible, there have been cases where widows and children were not eligible for allowances because the Army Pensions Board—which has the statutory duty to determine such matters—was unable to associate the certified cause of death with the pensionable disability. In my opinion a high degree of pensionable disability must affect the life span of the pensioner and play a not inconsiderable part in his death, even though it cannot be certified that death was due solely to that particular disability. Consequently, I feel that where a pensioner with a high degree of disablement, i.e. 50 per cent or more, dies, his widow and children should have an automatic entitlement to allowances. The necessary provision is made in section 3, which also covers the cases of pensioners who died before the enactment of the Bill.
Section 11 also relates to allowances for widows and children. It provides for the widow and children of a person who did not receive a pension and who died either while serving or within eight years after discharge from a disease aggravated by United Nations service.
The abolition of the qualifying date for marriage for purposes of a married pension necessitates a number of consequential amendments to the Acts in relation to children and adopted children. New married pension rates which provided in the Acts of 1946 and 1949 and the No. 2 Act of 1960 for former officers and soldiers of the Defence Forces are made up of an element in respect of the pensioner's wife and an element in respect of each child born not later than nine months after the pensioner's discharge. An adopted child is treated as a child of the marriage for purposes of benefit only where he was adopted before the date of the wound, the date of discharge or the date on which the special allowance commenced. Sections 8 and 15, in conjunction with the Schedule, provide that in future the child's element of the married pension will be payable in respect of all the children of the pensioner and that a child adopted at any time will reckon for benefit on the same basis as a child of the marriage.
The object of section 5 is to enable a member of the First Line Reserve to apply for a wound pension or gratuity. At present he cannot do so until he has been discharged from the Reserve. A wound pension will not be payable concurrently with service pay.
Part II of the Act of 1953 provides for the grant of an allowance to the permanently invalided brother of a deceased person who had pre-Truce military service and who died in circumstances attributable to service in the 1916-1923 period. Where an application is refused on grounds of failure to fulfil the requirement of dependency it can be reviewed from time to time at the request of the applicant. If, however, it is refused because of failure to satisfy the condition of permanent invalidism there is no power to reconsider it. In section 6 it is being provided that such an application may also be reviewed from time to time.
Increases in the benefits under the Acts are, in the main, what have come to be known as Budgetary increases, i.e. increases announced by the Minister for Finance in the Budget Statement as part of a general increase in public service pension. The present procedure for giving effect to such increases is by way of amendments to the Acts. It is now standard practice, in so far as public service pensions are concerned, that increases of this type, which conform to a well-established pattern, should be implemented by regulations rather than by amending legislation. The necessary provision is being made in section 7 to enable Budgetary increases in benefits under the Acts to be promulgated by regulations.
The remainder of the Bill is of a technical nature. Section 9 clears up an anomaly in the No. 2 Act of 1960. A former member of the Defence Forces has up to eight years after discharge in which to apply for a pension in respect of disease attributable to United Nations service. If, however, he dies, after discharge, from such a disease without having been granted a pension, his widow and children cannot qualify for allowances unless his death took place within four years after discharge. The period of four years after discharge in the case of allowances is being amended to eight.
Section 10 applies to the dependent relatives of a deceased soldier who dies from disease attributable to United Nations service the same conditions as at present apply to the relatives of a soldier who is killed or dies from wounds i.e., a relative will be treated as a dependant only if a voluntary allotment was payable to him or her by the deceased soldier.
When the Act of 1962 introduced married pensions and allowances in the case of pensioners whose pensions were in respect of disability aggravated by service, the relevant provision did not cover the case of a person who qualified for an aggravation pension after the passing of the Act. Section 12 remedies this omission.
Section 13, for the removal of doubt. applies certain general provisions of the Acts to the benefits under section 7 of the Act of 1962. It also applies them to allowances under section 11 of the Bill.
Finally, subsection (5) of section 3 and the first and fifth items in the Schedule repeal provisions of the Acts of 1932 and 1959 which impose restrictions on the grant of married pensions and widows' and children's allowances and which will now no longer apply.
Where my Department has a record of persons who would appear to be eligible for benefit under the Bill, it is the intention to communicate with them as soon as the Bill becomes law and to give them an opportunity of making application. To cover the possibility that there may be cases of which the Department is not aware, the provisions with regard to benefits will be advertised.