PENSION BOOKS (PROHIBITION OF ALIENATION) ACT, 1932

AN ACT TO PROHIBIT AND MAKE VOID ALIENATIONS AND PURPORTED ALIENATIONS BY WAY OF SALE, EXCHANGE, OR HYPOTHECATION OF DOCUMENTS NECESSARY FOR OBTAINING PAYMENT OF CERTAIN PENSIONS AND ALLOWANCES AND FOR THE PUNISHMENT OF PERSONS CONCERNED IN SUCH ALIENATIONS OR PURPORTED ALIENATIONS. [28th January, 1932.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS OF SAORSTÁT EIREANN AS FOLLOWS:—

1 Application of Act.

1.—This Act shall apply to every book, card, order, voucher, or other document (in this Act referred to as a document to which this Act applies) issued to any person and upon the delivery or production or in respect of the possession of which by such person on or after a date indicated expressly or by implication in such document and subsequent to the issue of such document any of the following pensions or allowances is payable to him, that is to say:—

• (a) any pension payable under the Old Age Pensions Acts, 1908 to 1928;

• (b) any pension payable under the Blind Persons Act, 1920;

• (c) any pension or allowance payable in respect or by virtue of employment in the armed forces of the late United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

2 Prohibition of alienation of documents.

2.—Every person who buys, takes in exchange, or takes in pawn any document to which this Act applies shall be guilty of an offence under this section.

3 Avoidance of alienation of documents.

3.—Every alienation or purported alienation of a document to which this Act applies, whether made by way of sale, exchange, or hypothecation and whether made before or after the commencement of this Act, shall be and (if made before the commencement of this Act) be deemed always to have been void and of no effect.

4 Return of documents on demand.

4.—(1) Every person who, by virtue of an alienation or purported alienation declared by this Act to be void, shall have in his possession a document to which this Act applies shall—

• (a) in the case of any such document issued under the Old Age Pensions Acts, 1908 to 1928, or the Blind Persons Act, 1920, on demand by a pension officer forthwith deliver such document to such officer or, where no such demand is made by a pension officer, on demand by the owner of such document or his duly authorised agent, forthwith deliver such document to such owner or agent; and

• (b) in the case of any other such document, on demand by the owner of such document or his duly authorised agent, forthwith deliver such document to such owner or agent.

• (2) Every person who, on a demand being made on him under this section, fails to deliver in accordance with this section a document which he is required by this section so to deliver shall be guilty of an offence under this section.

• (3) Where a person is convicted of an offence under this section the court by which he is so convicted may, where the circumstances so require, make such order as the court shall think proper for securing the delivery of the document in respect of which such offence was committed to the owner thereof or, where appropriate, to a pension officer.

• (4) In this section the expression “pension officer” means a person appointed under sub-section (4) of section 8 of the Old Age Pensions Act, 1908, to be a pension officer.

5 Punishment for offences.

5.—Every person who is guilty of an offence under any section of this Act shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds or, at the discretion of the court, to imprisonment for any term not exceeding six months or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

6 Short title and citation.

6.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Pensions Books (Prohibition of Alienation) Act, 1932.

• (2) This Act shall come into operation on the 1st day of May, 1932.