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153
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4
Page The Brobable cost of balance of civil pay.pl we 8589y on this is that no reliable estimate can be produced but that the cost would certainly be considerable. We do not even know what the system cost in the 1939 war except in the Post Office where the charge for the whole war period was £23 millions. From the Post Office figure, we might assume that for the Civil Service as a whole the charge might have been some £50 millions. Whether it would be less or more in any future war is a matter of conjecture. As we have shown in para- graph 5, it is doubtful whether the recent improvements in Service pay are likely, if applied generally in time of war, to reduce appreciably the number of civil servants eligible for balance of civil pay, though the amount of balance of civil pay which they would draw would of course be pro tanto diminished. But certainly whatever reduction resulted from this cause would be cancelled by the widening of the field of public employment. The entry of the socialised industries and the National Health Service into the group of public services eligible for civil pay would result in a considerable number of public servants being added to the list eligible for balance of civil pay. Our conclusion, based admittedly on conjecture, is that balance of civil pay in any future war, if administered on the present basis, would not be appreciably cheaper than in the 1939 war.
1.
In previous
The effect of taking home savings into account. wars the civil servant has been paid the difference between his civil pay and the cash paid by the Services. In any future war we feel that it would be reasonable to take into account not only actual Service pay but also the savings in personal expenditure (food and clothing are the most obvious) that occur when a civil servant joins the Forces. These might fairly be assessed at 27s. 6d for a married and 47s. 6d for a single man. If this were done the number of civil servants who would be ineligible for balance of civil pay would be increased and the cost of course reduced.
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8.
The cost of an improved War Service Grants Scheme. It has been suggested that if the system of balance of civil pay were discon- tinued it would be necessary to extend the scope of the War Service Grants scheme. The object of this scheme is to deal with hardships resulting in individual cases from call-up. At present this scheme in fact can only give full cover on the lower salary ranges since the maximum grant is £150 a year. It should be noted that this maximum was fixed at an early stage in the last war and would probably have to be increased whatever the decision on balance of civil pay. If balance of civil pay were abolished it has been suggested that the scope of the scheme should be extended to prevent actual hardship arising from the call-up of public servants in the higher as well as in the lower salary · bands. For example, a civil servant on £700 a year with a wife and three children and serving in the ranks would be hard put to it to main- tain his wife and family and keep up unavoidable commitments of rent, etc., within a maximum grant of £150. What would be the effect of increasing the scope of this scheme in this way?
(a) It is submitted that the number of additional cases that would
be brought within the scope of this scheme would be compara- tively small, The far greater number of those called up are those within the lower salary bands whose cases would be dealt with adequately within the existing limits. Those who would be added to the scheme by the raising of the limit would
aratively small in number.