A SOLDIER'S PENSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 102, 2 May 1929, Page 11

A SOLDIER'S PENSION.

PAID AFTER SEVEN YEARS. MENTAL HOSPITAL CASE. R.SA. CLAIM SUCCESSFUL. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, Wednesday. [ A satisfactory settlement has been secured of an interesting case under the War Pensions Act .of 1915, the outcome of which has been the payment by the War Pensions Board of a lump sum of over £700 as back pension due to a returned soldier who had been confined for seven and a-half years in a mental institution. The case was brought under the notice of the local R.SA. by the pensioner, who was compelled to go into the institution as a result of war disability. On his discharge at the end of seven and a-half years he made application to the War Pensions Bord for payment of the sum which he considered was his due, according to the provisons of the Act, namely, a lump sum equal to a total pension at the rate of £2 a week which had accrued to him during his term in the institution. None of the pension, which was a total disability payment of £2 a week, was paid during the seven and a-half years.

The application made after Ms discharge from the institution was refused by the War Pensions Board, but he was advised that if he submitted proposals for the investment or other use of the money, the board would favourably consider the application. This was done, but no payment was made, and the board finally agreed to pay "arrears in nension" at the rate of £2 a week. The pensioner was convinced that 'the board had no. right to withhold any of the lump sum for which he had made application, and he acted on the advice of the local executive and took the necessary steps to obtain a writ of mandamus directing the board formally to assess the amount due and pay it to him. In a final endeavour to have the matter settled representatives of the association met the Minister of Pensions, the Hon. T. M. Wilford, who at once secured the opinion of the Crown Law Office on the matter. The result was that the s-ensloner concerned had now received from the board the payment of a lump sum exceeding £700.