The Departmental Committee on Old Age Pensions have reported in
favour of raising the pension to ten shillings a week while maintaining the present age-limit of seventy. It recom- mends that pensioners should no longer be disqualified for the receipt of outdoor relief, and that imprisonment should not bar a person from receiving the pension. The Committee were divided on the question whether pensions should be given to all old people irrespective of their means. Eleven out of eighteen members favoured universal pensions ; the minority of seven proposed to exclude persons whose yearly income exceeded £63. The Committee estimate that the increase of the pension in itself would raise the cost from £17,500,000 to £23,500,000 a year. If the income-limit was doubled,, the cost would be £32,000,000. Pensions to all at the age of seventy would cost £4.1,000,000. The "absolute accuracy" of these figures, the Committee wisely add, "cannot be guaranteed." We hope that all increases will be withheld till the "normal financial year returns.
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