The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 1901. OLD AGE PENSIONS IN ENGLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 131, 4 June 1901, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 1901. OLD AGE PENSIONS IN ENGLAND.

For the cause that lacks a2__lta_.ee, Tor the Trroiig tnat needs resistance, Tor the future In the distanoo, jnd the good that we oan do. ,

According' to the report of Mr. Chamberlain'- recent address to the Friendly Societies, the Government has decided finally against any form of universal old age pension. But it by no means follows that even the Conservative Ministry is blind to the necessity for some form of provision for the aged poor. The Select Committee appointed to consider the subject in 1899 reported that they could not ignore the fact, abundantly supported as it was by unimpeachable evidence, that 'leases are too often to be found in which poor and aged people, whose conduct and whose whole career have been blameless, industrious and deserving, find themselves, from no fault of their own, at the end of a long and meritorious life, with nothing but the workhouse or inadequate out-door relief as the refuge for their declining years. " There seems to be uo doubt that nearly one-half of the working population of England either cannot or do not make sufficient provision for their old age, and are therefore more or less dependent upon the rates at about 65 years of age and upwards. Mr Chamberlain himself would be one of the first to admit that a large proportion of this poverty is due to ! circumstances quite outside the control of its victims. Speaking on Mr. Holland's Old Age Pension Bill in 1899 the Colonial .Secretary stated with

: emphasis his opinion that the large amount of old age pauperism in England "is proved not be due or mainly due to drink, idleness or culpable improvidence.'" Of the people who come ou the poor relief funds at the age of 65, five-sixths have never applied for relief up to the age of CO; they are not professional paupers, but they are left helpless in.extreme old age through failing powers, lack of opportunity and the pitiless competition of the younger'and the stronger. So deep is the impression produced by the consideration of these facts in England thai the "Spectator" has confidently asserted as the conviction of all intelligent men, the opinion that relief for the aged'poor must be ehang-ed from workhouse relief to some form of pension. Within the last ten years much has been done by Parliament in the way of accumulating information ou this important subject. The Aberclare Commission of 1893, and the Rothschild Commission ol' 1396, were followed by the Select Committee of 1899, whose

report is ou the whole very encouraging to those who believe in tbe value and tbe practicability of old age pensions. The Committee classified the various schemes submitted to it under four heads —schemes involving- compulsory contribution by the wage earners, universal pensions for every member of* the community. State aided pensions, and pensions for special classes, such as members of friendly societies. The compulsory contribution scheme on the German model seems both unpopular and impracticable. Mr Chas. Booth's scheme, of a universal pension of 5/ per week to every inhabitant of the country over the age of 65 is tlie scheme to.which Mr Chamberlain has just referred. It would most likely involve the Government in an expenditure, of £.3;.,000,000 a year, and may therefore be dismissed as impossible. Apart from the intolerable financial, burden it would impose there is no doubt that for their own protection the wage-earning classes would refuse to allow such pensioners to engage in remunerative employmeut. Voluntary State-aided pensions are based upon the principle that the wage earner should be encouraged to-save by the offer of a fixed pension at a certain age to all whose income falls within certain limits. Sir- Spencer. Walpole's scheme, laid before the Rothschilds Committee, proposed that all persons over 65 who could prove that they had an income of not less than 3/6, nor more than 5/ a week, should receive a Government pension on a sliding scale up to 2/6 a week. The disadvantages of this scheme are fairly obvious. It would beyond a certain i-oint discourage, saving; it would not. reach the most destitute class; and it would leave unaided those who by reason of infirmity could not live on 5/ a week.

The pension scheme that has received most attention is that "which bases tbe claim for a pension upon "definite meritorious acts." Membership of some provident friendly society is the "act" most generally suggested as a test. On these lines an Old Age Pensions Bill was brought forward in 1900, proposing that every member of a friendly societjTwho had not been in prison for ten years, or in a workhouse for five years, did not earn more than 5/ a week, had an income of less than 16/ a week, and had reached the age of 65, should receive a pension of 5/ a week, two-

thirds to be paid by Parliament, and the rest by the County Council out of the rates. The fatal objections raised were, briefly, that most of the persons over 65 in England are women, and would therefore be. excluded; and that in any case the poorest classes who needed pensions most could never afford to contribute to friendly society funds.

After considering all the criticsms to which the various schemes were subjected, •the Special Commission of IS9. reported in favour of an old age pensions system,' in which the age limit would be 65, and the. qualifying income must be less than 10/ a week. A

Departmental Committee then discussed the fiuaneial aspects of such a scheme, and came to the conclusion that it. would cost the United Kingdom at least -10,000.000 per annum now, and nearly £16,000,000 per annum in .0 years time. In the face of Sir Michael Hicks-Beach's last budget and the new taxes, no Ministry could face such an expenditure. But we have given ample proof that a system of Old Age Pensions such as has already justified itself in Denmark lis now regarded as falling within the range of practical politics, and that but for the extraordinary financial j strain of^he last year, England might already have added the weight of her approval to the policy which New Zealand has inaugurated on behalf of hex i aged citizens.