# Ministry of Pensions

The Ministry of Pensions was a British government ministry responsible for the administration and delivery of pensions. It was headed by the Minister of Pensions.

## History

In September 1916, a Cabinet Committee on Pensions recommended that the work of the War Office, Chelsea Hospital commissioners and Central Army Pensions Issue Office should be taken over by a Pensions Board. The Ministry of Pensions Act 1916 created a single Ministry of Pensions to administer naval and military war pensions to former members of the Armed Forces and their dependants, and to provide medical care for the disabled.
It was expanded rapidly during the opening months of the Second World War by secondment of civil servants from the Inland Revenue and other government departments. In 1940, most of the Ministry was moved to Cleveleys, north of Blackpool, Lancashire. This central office kept records of pensions granted, issued pension books and prepared cases for appeal tribunals. The Rossall School was taken over initially, but later several hundred employees worked in prefabricated one-storey office buildings assembled on a site that had been part of the Holt's farm in the Norcross section of Carleton. The Ministry moved to buildings on Millbank in London in 1949.
In 1953, the functions of the Ministry of Pensions were merged with those of the Ministry of National Insurance into a new Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance.

## Ministers

Ministers of Pensions (1916–1953) :
| Minister | Term of office | Term of office | Political party | Cabinet |
| George Nicoll Barnes | 10 December 1916 | 17 August 1917 | Labour | Lloyd George |
| John Hodge | 17 August 1917 | 10 January 1919 | Labour | Lloyd George |
| Laming Worthington-Evans | 10 January 1919 | 2 April 1920 | Conservative | Lloyd George |
| Ian Macpherson | 2 April 1920 | 19 October 1922 | Liberal | Lloyd George |
| George Tryon | 31 October 1922 | 22 January 1924 | Conservative | Law |
| George Tryon | 31 October 1922 | 22 January 1924 | Conservative | Baldwin I |
| Frederick Roberts | 23 January 1924 | 3 November 1924 | Labour | MacDonald I |
| George Tryon | 11 November 1924 | 4 June 1929 | Conservative | Baldwin II |
| Frederick Roberts | 7 June 1929 | 24 August 1931 | Labour | MacDonald II |
| George Tryon | 3 September 1931 | 18 June 1935 | Conservative | National I |
| George Tryon | 3 September 1931 | 18 June 1935 | Conservative | National II |
| Robert Hudson | 18 June 1935 | 30 July 1936 | Conservative | National III |
| Herwald Ramsbotham | 30 July 1936 | 7 June 1939 | Conservative | National III |
| Herwald Ramsbotham | 30 July 1936 | 7 June 1939 | Conservative | National IV |
| Walter Womersley | 7 June 1939 | 26 July 1945 | Conservative | Chamberlain War |
| Walter Womersley | 7 June 1939 | 26 July 1945 | Conservative | Churchill War |
| Walter Womersley | 7 June 1939 | 26 July 1945 | Conservative | Churchill Caretaker |
| Wilfred Paling | 3 August 1945 | 17 April 1947 | Labour | Attlee |
| John Burns Hynd | 17 April 1947 | 7 October 1947 | Labour | Attlee |
| George Buchanan | 7 October 1947 | 2 July 1948 | Labour | Attlee |
| Hilary Marquand | 2 July 1948 | 17 January 1951 | Labour | Attlee |
| George Isaacs | 17 January 1951 | 26 October 1951 | Labour | Attlee |
| Derick Heathcoat-Amory | 5 November 1951 | 3 September 1953 | Conservative | Churchill III |