TEACHERS' SUPERANNUATION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 280, 24 November 1903, Page 2

TEACHERS' SUPERANNUATION.

AN ACTUARIAL REPORT. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter,; WELLINGTON, this day. The report of the Acting-Actuary of the Government Insurance Department, regarding the teachers , superannuation scheme, with respect to the proposed benefits and contributions, was presented to Parliament yesterday by the Minister for Education. In order to make the scheme solvent for mala teachers now in the service, at least £297,000 will be required. In other words, the present value of the proposed benefits exceeded the present value of the proposed contributions by that amount. In regard to female teachers, the contributions provided by the Teachers' Superannuation Bill are: For ages 30 and under, five per cent, of salary; over 30, but not exceeding 3">. six per cent.; over 35, but not exceeding 40. six and a half per cent.; over 40, but not exceeding 45, eight per cent.; over 45, but not exceeding r>o, nine per cent.; over 50, ten per cent. The minimum contribution is uot to be less than £4 per annum. Female teachers who have contributed during a period of 25 years are entitled to all the benefits of the fund without further contribution. The actuary states that in the case of female teachers entering the service und<?r the age of twenty-one, about 90 per cent. will withdraw before they are entitled to pensions. In the majority of cases the withdrawals are no doubt caused by marriage, and the pension scheme would not cause these females to remain in the service, or materially diminish the rate of withdrawals, as would no doubt be the case as regards male teachers. The amount required to be paid at once on behalf of 1388 female teachers, in addition to the contributions provided for in the bill, would be about £128,000. Allowing for the probabilities of death and retirement, and not taking into account any benefits their children might be entitled to under the scheme, the deficiency in the case of male teachers was £297,000, making a total deficiency of £479,000, at least for teachers now entitled to join the scheme. As the present values of the contributions for new entrants, both male and female, are less than the present values of the proposed benefits, every teacher hereafter appointed will add to this deficiency, and increase the amount the Government will ultimately have to contribute to finance the scheme. The number of male teachers ie 1251, of whom 56 are aged 60 and over, and 16 are under the age of 60, but have service for 35 years, making a total of 72 male teachers entitled to retire at once under the scheme on pensions amounting in the aggragate to about £0600 per annum. To provide pensions for the older teachere without Government aid is quite impossible, and in regard to new entrants the rate proposed, viz., five per cent., is barely sufficient to provide a pension to the teacher himself, without the return of contributions or the benefits to widows and children. The New Zealand Civil Service Insurance Act, 1893, provides for a perfectly solvent scheme of pensions and insurances, and the teachers in native schools already parchase their own pensions under this eyetem without coat to the Government,