Polish Resettlement Act 1947



Polish Resettlement Act , 1947.

(10 & 11 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 19.

An Act to provide for the application of the Royal Warrant as to pensions, etc., for the military forces to certain Polish forces, to enable the Assistance Board to meet the needs of, and to provide accommodation in camps or other establishments for, certain Poles and others associated with Polish forces, to provide for their requirements as respects health and educational services, to provide for making arrangements and meeting expenses in connection with their emigration, to modify as respects the Polish resettlement forces and past members of certain Polish forces provisions relating to the service of aliens in the forces of the Crown, to provide for the discipline and internal administration of certain Polish forces and to affirm the operation up to the passing of this Act of provision previously made therefor, and for purposes connected therewith and consequential thereon.

[27th March 1947]

Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

S-1 Power to apply Royal Warrant as to pensions etc. to certain Polish forces.

1 Power to apply Royal Warrant as to pensions etc. to certain Polish forces.

(1) The Minister of Pensions may, with the consent of the Treasury, make a scheme for applying, in relation to the disablement or death, in consequence of service under British command, of members of—

(a ) the Polish naval detachment mentioned in the agreement made between His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom and the Government of Poland on the eighteenth day of November, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine,

(b ) the Polish armed forces organised and employed under British command in pursuance of the agreement made as aforesaid on the fifth day of August, nineteen hundred and forty,

(c ) the Polish resettlement forces,

provisions of His Majesty's Royal Warrant of the twelfth day of April, nineteen hundred and forty-six, concerning retired pay, pensions and other grants for members of the military forces and of the nursing and auxiliary services thereof disabled, and for the widows, children, parents and other dependants of such members deceased, in consequence of service during the 1939 world war

Provided that payments under a scheme made under this section shall be limited to such as fall due for payment before the expiration of five years from the passing of this Act, or such extended period, if any, as the Minister of Pensions, with the consent of the Treasury, may from time to time by order specify (but without prejudice to any provision which may be made by the scheme for the drawing thereafter of any such payments not drawn during that period, or the completion thereafter of pending proceedings on a claim which will, if successful, confer a title to payments which would have fallen due during that period had the claim been then accepted), and any such order may provide that the extension shall apply only to cases of any class or classes therein specified.

(2) The scheme may also include provision, as regards cases in which periodical payments in respect of the disablement or death of members of Polish forces not falling within paragraph (a ), (b ) or (c ) of the preceding subsection are being made out of moneys provided by Parliament at the date of the coming into operation of that provision, for the continuance of any of those payments during a period not longer than one year from that date.

(3) Provisions of the said Royal Warrant applied by the scheme may be applied with modifications, or subject to conditions, limitations or exceptions, and the scheme shall contain provision for securing that no payment shall be made thereunder to or in respect of any person as to whom the Minister of Pensions is satisfied that he is resident in Poland.

(4) The scheme, or any substituted scheme made under this subsection, may be amended by an order made by the Minister of Pensions with the consent of the Treasury, and, if it appears to him to be expedient, having regard to amendments made or to be made in any such scheme, that a new scheme should be substituted therefor, he may, with the consent of the Treasury, make a substituted scheme and thereby revoke the former scheme.

(5) The scheme, or any substituted scheme or order made under the last preceding subsection, may provide that it shall come into operation, or shall be deemed to have come into operation, on such date as may be specified therein, whether before or after the passing of this Act, and different dates may be specified as respects different purposes or different provisions of the scheme or order.

(6) A scheme or order made under this section shall, for the purpose of section three of the Rules Publication Act, 1893 (which relates to the printing of statutory rules), be deemed to be statutory rules within the meaning of that Act.

(7) Payments under a scheme made under this section shall be made out of moneys provided by Parliament

S-2 Allowances from the Assistance Board.

2 Allowances from the Assistance Board.

(1) An allowance may be granted by the Assistance Board (in this and the next succeeding section referred to as ‘the Board’) to a person in the United Kingdom of any of the categories specified in subsection (2) of this section, being a person who has attained the age of sixteen years, if he proves in accordance with rules made under the Unemployment Assistance Act, 1934 ,—

(a ) that he is in need of an allowance;

(b ) that he has no work, or only such part-time or intermittent work as not to enable him to earn sufficient for his needs; and

(c ) that he is, if required by the Board so to be, registered for employment in the prescribed manner;

and if he has made application for an allowance in the prescribed manner.

(2) The said categories are—

(a ) Poles whose registration under the Aliens Order, 1920, took place on or after the first day of September, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, and who have been permitted to enter, or to remain in, the United Kingdom in view of circumstances attributable to war, as to which, in case of doubt, a certificate of the Secretary of State shall be conclusive;

(b ) former members of any of the forces mentioned in subsection (1) of section one of this Act (including the naval detachment therein mentioned), and members of any of those forces relegated from service therewith;

(c ) wives of men of categories (a ) and (b ), and any woman who, having been the wife of a man of either of those categories, has ceased so to be, and has not re-married;

(d ) persons who have been permitted to enter the United Kingdom on or after the first day of September, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, as being followers of a body of Polish forces entering the United Kingdom and dependent thereon or on members thereof, as to which, in case of doubt, a certificate of the Secretary of State shall be conclusive.

(3) This section shall be construed with, and treated for all purposes as forming part of, the Unemployment Assistance Act, 1934, and the enactments therein contained shall apply accordingly, subject to the modifications set out in Part I of the Schedule to this Act, and the provisions of any rules or regulations for the time being in force under that Act shall apply accordingly.

(4) There shall be defrayed out of moneys provided by Parliament any increase attributable to the passing of this section in the sums payable out of such moneys under section forty-seven of the Unemployment Assistance Act, 1934, or section six of the Determination of Needs Act, 1941 and any sums received by the Board under the Unemployment Assistance Act, 1934, as applied for the purposes of this section shall be paid into the Exchequer.

S-3 Provision by the Assistance Board of accommodation in camps.

3 Provision by the Assistance Board of accommodation in camps.

(1) The Board may provide accommodation in camps, hostels or other establishments for persons in Great Britain being of any of the categories specified in subsection (2) of the last preceding section, or dependants of persons of any of those categories or of members of any of the Polish resettlement forces serving therewith, or persons formerly dependent on a person who was of any of those categories, or was such a member of any of those forces, at that former time.

(2) The Board may make provision for meeting the needs (other than medical needs as defined in the Unemployment Assistance Act, 1934, or needs as to education), and for promoting the welfare, of persons for whom accommodation is provided under this section, and may make such provision in such manner as appears to them most convenient, whether by themselves providing goods or services, by making payments to others for the provision thereof, by making payments to persons for whom accommodation is provided, or partly in one of those ways and partly in another.

(3) The Board may make arrangements with any government department or other authority or person for...

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