WAR PENSIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25090, 4 December 1942, Page 2

WAR PENSIONS

MEN WHO SUFFER BREAKDOWN QUESTION OF ELIGIBILITY (F.0.P.R.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 3. The eligibility for pensions of men accepted by the army as Grade I and discharged after serving overseas was raised in the House of Representatives to-day by Mr W. J. Broadfoot (Opposition, Waitomo) in a question to the Minister of Defence, Mr Jones. He asked whether the Minister would assure the House that such men would not be denied the usual pension. Mr Broadfoot quoted the case of a member of the Expeditionary Force sent overseas as Grade I and returned after two years’ service as medically unfit. The man was granted a pension for two months, and it was then cancelled because the injury was alleged to be only an aggravation of a defect which existed before he w’as medically examined for service. The Minister said that when a man returned from overseas his case was dealt with by th ; War Pensions Board just as was the procedure in the last war. If tire man was not satisfied wuth the board’s decision he could appeal to the War Pensions Appeal Board. Mr Broadfoot was presumably questioning the decision of this board, and it w r as not his function to answer for it. The soldier had a remedy in an appeal to the House for a review of his case. So far as the Government w r as concerned, it was out to do all it possibly could for the returned servicemen. ’