WAR VETERANS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 34, 10 February 1937, Page 13

WAR VETERANS

PENSION"- PAYMENTS Cabinet approval has been given to the recommendation of the Minister of Labour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong) for a settlement of recent difficulties over the payment of allowances to unemployed war veterans. The Minister said yesterday that, briefly, his recommendation to the Government was that the Pensions Department should pay the full amount of pension to which war veterans were entitled under the Act, and that the Labour Department, out of the Unemployment Fund, should make up the difference between the pension and the allowable earnings of a war veteran under the Pensions Act. This was approved by Cabinet. "The decision means," continued Mr. Armstrong, "in effect, the Pensions Department will pay considerably more, and the Labour Department will pay considerably less. The new arrangement will operate as from the beginning of this month. In the meantime the Departmen will carry on as it has done in the past. Several members of the executive of the Returned Soldiers' Association informed me that such a recommendation would be accepted as being reasonable." Under the War Veterans Allowances Act, 1035, it is provided that in the case of an unemployed war veteran the allowance shall be at the rate of £52 a year, diminished by £1 for every complete £1 of his annual in- ■ come (exclusive of any allowance under this Act) in excess of £26; and, in the case of a married veteran with dependent children, £52 a year in respect of the veteran's personal claim; £39 a year for his wife, and £l3 for each dependent child, provided that the total allowance shall in no case exceed £143 a yepr.