I beg to move, in page 24, line 25, to leave out the words "one month" and to insert instead thereof the words "two months."

The first Sub-section is a fine, healthy specimen of an unnecessary effusion of words. At any rate I find myself in the position that I have to read it three or four times before I can understand what it means. If I understand it aright, it means that a pension shall be payable if the claim is made before the expiration of one month from the date upon which the claimant became entitled to the pension. If the claim is made within one month from the date, the pension accrues from that date, but if more than a month should elapse before the unfortunate claimant is able to make her claim the pension is not payable from the date of entitlement but only becomes payable from the date upon which the claim is made. I cannot for the life of me understand why the right hon. Gentleman should put this Clause into his Bill at all. No decent, self-respecting insurance company, certainly no friendly society, would attempt a thing like this. I can imagine 20 or 30 sets of circumstances in which it is literally impossible for a claimant to make her claim within a month from the date upon which she becomes a widow. Take the case of a casual worker who goes away on tramp to look for a job. He moves about from place to place. He is accidentally killed, perhaps on the railway. His death is not discovered until more than a month, perhaps two or three months afterwards, yet the Government says this poor woman shall not be entitled to draw her pension except from the date upon which her claim is made. It may be proved that the man died earlier. "No matter," says the Government. "We will not pay the pension from the date of death, but only from the date on which this poor unfortunate woman was in a position to make her claim." I should have thought the experience of the Ministry of Pensions would have taught the Government a lesson. Every one of us is aware of cases where the claim was not made within 12 months of the date upon which death took place; and whilst it may be said those cases occurred during the War, when it was frequently difficult for the widow to obtain proof, or even knowledge of the death, in ordinary civil life hundreds, if not thousands, of similar cases arise. Take a marine engineer. In numbers of cases men are lost at sea. Men are lost when they go away to jobs in a foreign land. The widow may not know until more than a month has elapsed. The Ministry goes out of its way and takes special pains to do what no insurance company or friendly society in the land would attempt to do, that is to refuse payment from the date of entitlement and only grant it from the date on which the widow was able to make a claim. I trust the Minister will see his way—it will cost a mere bagatelle—to wipe this small but unnecessary and irritating blot from his Bill.