WAR PENSIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 44, 22 February 1932, Page 10

WAR PENSIONS.

EX-SOLDIERS AND FAMILIES.

WHANGAREI DISCUSSION.

BASED ON WRONG FIGURES,

Comment on the opinions expressed at a meeting of the Empire Ex-servicemen's Association at Whangarei, and published in the "Star" on Saturday, was made to-day by the secretary of the Auckland R.S.A., Mr. E. H. Sharp. He said that a man's war pension is given only according to his percentage of disability, and that totally disabled men, from privates up to sergeants, received £2 per week, the maximum for those ranks. Disability percentage is granted on a percentage of that.

The secretary said that he was surprised to read that in some instances the combined pensions—war and economic—paid to partially disabled soldiers and their families amounted to as much as £7 per week. A 100 per cent disabled man, with a wife and five children, would receive only £6 15/, which was made up as follows: Total disablement, £2; economic pension, £1 7/; wife's pension, £1; and 10/ for each child, £2 8/. The apparent discrepancy in the last figure is explained by the fact that after four children the allowance per child decreases.

The secretary said that the dependents' pension depends on the pensioner's income. If the pensioner is able _to obtain work, the dependents' pension was reduced, if not wiped out.

"As for a partly disabled man getting £7 per week," said the secretary, "I would certainly like to know how such a thing has come about. What I should like to see is the pensioners who are getting the lower rates made eligible for the economic pension." In cases of partial disablement, the "N.Z.R.S.A. Review" states that a married man with a wife and two children would receive £4 7/, made up as follow: Physical pension, £1; economic pension, £1 7/; wife's pension, £1; children's pension, £1. If the man could obtain work, and could earn up to £1 per week, nothing would be subtracted from either his war or economic pensions. If his total income amounted to more than £5 7/, the pensions would be reduced accordingly.

With reference to the remit to the effect that "the Whangarei Association advocates that the Government be invited to promote legislation without delay in the direction of pooling all patriotic, canteen and other similar funds, with a view to investing the whole in order to pay to every returned man and woman a weekly pension on attaining the age of 55 or 60," etc., the secretary said that the R.S.A. had strong objections to the Government handling the funds, and those objections would be shareo. by the patriotic associations. "These funds," he said, "are needed more than ever, in many cases, to keep exservicemen from starving."