I think perhaps the Committee is entitled—in fact, I am sure it is—to hear why this Motion is on the Order Paper. Its object is to prepare the way for the introduction of certain Amendments to the Pensions (Increase) Bill with which we shall be dealing in Committee tomorrow. Those Amendments deal with the income limits laid down in the Pensions (Increase) Acts of 1920 and 1924. Those two Acts are similar to the Pensions (Increase) Act, 1944, and the amending Bill which is now before the House. The Acts of 1920 and 1924 sought to assist pensioners who had suffered under the rise in the cost of living during the 1914–18 war; the 1944 Act and the present amending Bill seek to do the same thing for pensioners who have suffered in a similar way from the rise in the cost of living, as a result of the war recently concluded.

In both sets of Measures the method employed has been to give a percentage increase to those in the lower ranges of pensions in order to assist them to meet hardship due to the rise in the cost of living. In both cases upper income limits were set. Unfortunately, in the Acts of 1920 and 1924 the income limits were extremely low, as we should judge them now. The limits were £200 for a married pensioner, and £150 for a single pensioner without dependants. This Motion, as the Committee will see, seeks to raise those limits from £150 to £200 for a single, and from £200 to £275 for a married pensioner. The reason for this change is that, unless we do this, pensioners who qualify under those two Acts for a pension, and also qualify for an old age pension, may not be able to get the full benefit of the recent increase in the old age pension which Parliament gave. We think it would be unfair to give with one hand and take away with the other.

As the Committee will know, the old age pension rate is going up for single pensioners from 10s. to 26s. a week, and for married pensioners from 20s. to 42s. a week. The gross yearly amount is £41 12s. in one case and £57 4s. in the other. What we have done in this Motion, to which we hope the Committee will agree, is to increase the income limits under the Acts of 1920 and 1924, by £50 in the case of a single pensioner and by £75 in the case of a married pensioner. The Committee will thus see that these increases namely, in the case of the single man, £41 12s., and in the case of a married man, £57 4s., are covered by the proposed higher income limits. We do not contemplate that these changes will cost any very great sum. The number of pensioners who come under these two Acts must now be extremely small, and be limited almost entirely to police pensioners who, as the Committee knows, would have retired early at, I think, the age of 55. Although there cannot be very many of them still alive, we do feel that they should be covered. With that explanation, I hope the Committee will agree to the Motion without further debate.