WAR PENSIONS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2868, 5 September 1916, Page 6

WAR PENSIONS

THE BILL MOUNTING UP

ANALYSIS OF BOARD'S WORK

Tho War Pensions bill is mounting up to a big amount, and mounting very , rapidly. The annual charge, according to the latest analysis compiled (up to 19) was, in round figures, £170,500. And applications come pouring in'at the rate of from 100 to 200 per week. . Never since the beginning of April has the Pensions Board, received less than 100 claims in any one week. In a few weeks over 200 havebeen received. Recently tho board has been on tour, dealing with cases in other centres, and there is an accumu--1 lation of claims here requiring attention. On hand there are 229 soldiers' .claims and 122 dependants' claims. The board hopes to deal with most of them this week. As periodical reports have shown such an accumulation is by no means common. ■ . Up till August 19 the board had dealt with 2800 soldiers' claims 'and 1122 dependants' claims. The soldiers' claims were dealt with as f0110w:—664 soldiers were granted pensions, 1855 were- granted temporary pensions, 263 applications were declined, 16 claims wero adjourned, and 14 were on hand. The deepndants'' cases wore dealt with as follow:—919 pensions were granted, 87 temporary pensions or, allowances were granted, 89 application? w°rp cliried, 7 were adjourned, and 20 were ou hand. At this time there were only 34 cases "on hand," and some of theso wore held over for good reasons, often for tho obtaining of a medical report. Tho average value of the pensions granted appears from the figures which follow: —The 664 soldiers received pensions worth £37,125 per year, an average pension of £55; 198 Widows of ' soldiers killed and wives of soldiers disabled received £190,025, an average pension of £96 (in this is included the amount of allowance drawn in respect of children); 721 other dependants received pensions of £21,414, an average pension of £291

Tlio gross totals give these figures: 1883 pt-nsioners reoeiverl £77,564, an average pension of £49; add to this the annual value of 1940 temporary pensions at the rate of about £93,000 a year, and tho gross total is approximately £170,500".