COST-OF-LIVING BONUS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 183, 4 August 1932, Page 21

COST-OF-LIVING BONUS.

SUPERANNUATED PUBLIC SERVANTS. EFFECT OF STATE.ECONOMIES. The report presented at the twelfth annual meeting of the Dominion Executive of Federated Superannuated Public Servants of New Zealand, held last week, etated that during the past year the concession of receiving payment of allowances on the Saturday, when the last day of the month fell on a Sunday or on a day previous to a holiday, was obtained.

The president, Mr. G. Girling Butcher, said that the Government in its search for economies, had decided to reduce the cost of living bonus hitherto granted to

some annuitants in receipt of less than £100 per annum. The maximum was now fixed at £00 per annum, which meant that the Lonu* of £26 per annum was to be reduced by £1 of the annuity or income in excess of £64. He said that when a breach of private contracts hae been legalised a fear was created that an attempt on similar lines might be made in their own case. The question arose whether the contract entered into between the State and a contributor to a service superannuation fund was binding on both of the parties or only on one of the parties. A deputation had waited on Parliament in connection with the matter, with a satisfactory result for the time being. Unsuccessful attempts had been made by the executive to have superannuation allowances assessed as "earned" income for income tax purposes, but the question was still under consideration.