Pensions (Increase) Act 1944
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
Pensions (Increase) Act, 1944
(7 & 8 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 21.
An Act to provide for the increase of certain pensions payable in respect of public service.
[24th May 1944]
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:—
1 Increase of certain pensions payable in respect of public service.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, a pension specified in the First Schedule to this Act may, in respect of any period after the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and forty-three, be increased by the pension authority by an amount calculated in accordance with the provisions of the Second Schedule to this Act:
Provided that a pension shall not be increased under the provisions of this section unless the pension authority are satisfied that the income of the pensioner does not exceed, in the case of a pensioner who is married or has at least one dependant, three hundred pounds a year, and, in the case of any other pensioner, two hundred and twenty-five pounds a year.
(2) Where a pension is payable in respect of the pensioner's own services, the pension shall not be increased under the provisions of this section unless:—
(a ) the pensioner has attained the age of sixty years: or
(b ) the pensioner has retired on account of physical or mental infirmity from the office or employment in respect of which, or on retirement from which, the pension is payable: or
(c ) the pension authority are satisfied that the pensioner is disabled by physical or mental infirmity: or
(d ) the pensioner is a woman who has at least one dependant.
(3) Where a pension is payable in respect of the services of any person other than the pensioner, not being the deceased husband of the pensioner, the pension shall not be increased under the provisions of this section unless:—
(a ) the pensioner has attained the age of sixty years: or
(b ) the pensioner has not attained the age of sixteen years: or
(c ) the pensioner is a woman who has at least one dependant: or
(d ) the pension authority are satisfied that the pensioner is disabled by physical or mental infirmity.
(4) Where a pension is payable in respect of the services of the deceased husband of the pensioner, the pension shall not be increased under the provisions of this section unless:—
(a ) the pensioner has attained the age of forty years: or
(b ) she has at least one dependant: or
(c ) the pension authority are satisfied that she is disabled by physical or mental infirmity.
(5) For the purposes of this section and of the Second Schedule to this Act, the expression ‘dependant’ means, in relation to any pensioner, any person other than the pensioner with respect to whom the pension authority are satisfied that he is wholly or mainly supported by the pensioner and that his total income from any other source does not exceed fifty-two pounds a year, being either—
(a ) a person who has not attained the age of sixteen years, or who, if he has attained that age, is receiving full-time instruction at any educational establishment or is undergoing training for any trade, profession, or vocation: or
(b ) the father, mother, brother, sister, child, uncle or aunt of the pensioner, or of the husband or wife of the pensioner, or of the deceased husband or wife of the pensioner: or
(c ) the child of any such person as is mentioned in the last foregoing paragraph: or
(d ) the stepfather or stepmother of the pensioner:
and in this subsection the expression ‘child’ includes, in relation to any person, a step-child, an illegitimate child and a child adopted by him in pursuance of an adoption order made under the Adoption of Children Act, 1926 , the Adoption of Children (Scotland) Act, 1930 , or any corresponding enactment of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, or adopted by him in accordance with the law of the place where he was domiciled at the time of the adoption.
In calculating, for the purposes of this subsection, the income of any such person as is mentioned in paragraph (a ) thereof, no account shall be taken of any income accruing to that person as the holder of a scholarship or other educational endowment.
(6) For the purposes of this section, a pensioner shall be deemed to be disabled by physical or mental infirmity if he is permanently incapacitated by such infirmity from engaging in any regular full-time employment.
(7) Where any such pension as is specified in Part II of the First Schedule to this Act may be increased under the provisions of this section, it shall be the duty of the pension authority to increase the pension in accordance with those provisions.
2 Special provisions as to increase of pensions payable under the Superannuation Acts.
(1) A pension payable under the Superannuation Acts, 1834 to 1943, may, in respect of any period after the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and forty-three, be increased by the pension authority in accordance with the following scale, that is to say:—
(a ) where the pension does not exceed four hundred pounds a year, by ten per cent.:
(b ) where the pension exceeds four hundred pounds a year but does not exceed six hundred pounds a year, by seven and one half per cent.: and
(c ) where the pension exceeds six hundred pounds a year but is less than six hundred and forty-five pounds a year, to six hundred and forty-five pounds a year:
Provided that a pension shall not be increased under the provisions of this subsection if it is payable by reason of the death or retirement of any person before the twenty-first day of February, nineteen hundred and twenty-two.
(2) Where the increase of any pension is authorised by the provisions of the last foregoing subsection, then:—
(a ) if the amount of the increase so authorised equals or exceeds the amount by which the pension might have been increased under the provisions of section one of this Act, the pension shall not be increased under the provisions of the said section one: and
(b ) in any other case, the amount by which the pension may be increased under the provisions of the said section one shall be reduced by the amount of the increase authorised by the provisions of the last foregoing subsection.
3 Supplementary and administrative provisions.
(1) The income of a pensioner shall be calculated for the purposes of section one of this Act and the Second Schedule thereto in accordance with the regulations made by the Treasury, and such regulations shall in particular provide:—
(a ) that the first fifty-two pounds a year of any income accruing to the pensioner otherwise than in respect of a pension specified in the First Schedule to this Act shall be disregarded: and
(b ) that the income of a married pensioner shall be deemed to include the income of the husband or wife of the pensioner, but that, save as aforesaid, the income of a pensioner shall not be deemed to include the income of any other person.
(2) Where a pension specified in the First Schedule to this Act has been increased by reason of any addition, since the third day of September, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, to the emoluments of any office or employment in respect of which, or on retirement from which, the pension is payable, and the pension authority are satisfied that the said addition was an addition by way of war bonus or other similar allowance, the increase authorised by the foregoing provisions of this Act shall be calculated as if the pension had not been increased by reason of the said addition, and:—
(a ) if the amount of the increase authorised by those provisions, when so calculated as aforesaid, is equal to or less than the amount by which the pension has been increased by reason of the said addition, the pension shall not be increased under those provisions: and
(b ) in any other case, the amount of the increase authorised by those provisions, after being so calculated as aforesaid, shall be reduced by the amount by which the pension has been increased by reason of the said addition.
(3) Where the amount to which a pension may be increased under the foregoing provisions of this Act is less than the amount to which that pension might have been increased if it had been smaller, the pension may be increased to the last mentioned amount.
(4) In calculating, for the purposes of the Pensions (Increase) Acts, 1920 and 1924, the means of any pensioner or the amount of any pension, any increase for which provision is made by this Act shall be disregarded; and where the amount of any pension has been increased under the Pensions (Increase) Acts, 1920 and 1924, or by or under any other enactment, the increase for which provision is made by this Act shall, subject to the provisions of subsection (2) of this section, be calculated upon the amount of the pension as so increased.
(5) The Treasury may by regulations:—
(a ) prescribe the manner in which claims for an increase of a pension under the provisions of section one of this Act are to be made, and the procedure to be followed in considering and determining any such claim:
(b ) prescribe the evidence required for the purpose of determining whether a pension may be increased in accordance with the provisions of the said section:
(c ) prescribe the manner in which the amount of any pension is to be calculated for any of the purposes of this Act in cases where any part thereof has been surrendered for the purpose of enabling the pension authority to grant a pension to the husband or wife of the pensioner and the manner...
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