ECONOMIC PENSIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 246, 17 October 1929, Page 22

ECONOMIC PENSIONS.

There is a great lot of misunderstanding with-regard to the economic soldiers' pension. This pension was designed by the Maesey Government to meet the needs of men left over from the Repatriation Department, and was intended to take the place of the repatriation sustenance and also the old "supplementary" pension. It was planned to meet two distinct needs: (1) Cases who were obliged to give up work temporarily in order to take treatment for disability; (2) cases where the evidence produced showed the inability of the pensioner to retain employment, even when he might be fortunate enough to get a job, breaking down after a few months and putting the.country to the expense of a full pension of £3 10/ per week, in addition to hospital treatment for months at a stretch. These latter cases are the most difficult of all to provide for. They are the neurasthenics, the rheumatics and the generally worndawn, who cannot be accurately diagnosed ae anything very definite. Yet at the eametime they are much more decidedly unfit than a good many men who have only been wounded. It is nonsense to suggest light employment for such men, for in reality there is no such thing for them as "light work." And I speak from the depth of experience when I say that. The Pensions Department aleo knows from multifarious medical reports that these men simply cannot stand up to a job for any length of time, and so in order to prevent an increased charge upon the Government in hospital expenses the Pensions Board grants them the economic pension. In that way they make the best of a bad job. And that, after all, is the test anyone can do. For over four years I have tussled with the problem, and I cannot see any other solution to it. R. M. THOMSON.