Fraudulent Dealings by Pension Guardians
THE Commissioner of Pensions, in his annual report, discusses at length the faults of the present pension system and the difficulties in the way of determining the merits of claims for pensions and increases. A rule was adopted in January, 1900, requiring guardians of pensioners to render to the department statements of their receipts and expenditures of pension money. The adoption of the rule was followed by some disclosures of fraudulent dealings. Guardians were found, in some cases, to be drawing pension money long after the death of their wards. Many cases were found where insane pensioners had been placed in asylums and other public institutions as indigent persons, while the guardians had drawn the pension money during the whole period.