WHITHER WITH PENSIONS?

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 206, 31 August 1936, Page 6

WHITHER WITH PENSIONS?

A sufficient indication of the importance of the new pensions proposals now before Parliament is the increase of nearly 50 per cent in total expenditure on pensions, as compared with last year. The figure is to be raised from £3,770,000 to £5,480,000. This is accounted for partly by the restoration of the maximum income limit for family allowances to £4 for a single family (an increase of 15/), partly by the extension of pension benefits in various directions, but mainly by the increase of 2/6 a week in oldage pensions. The Minister has wisely added a clause to enable wives to draw the family payments. Deserted wives are to be treated for pension purposes as widows, a provision which will have to be applied with care to prevent its abuse. The State has a duty to the destitute wives and children, but only ■after the husband has failed. This provision should not be used as a loophole for escape from parental responsibilities. There is as much need as in the past to insist that a deserting husband shall not be lightly let off. In this and other respects the work of the Pensions Department will be much increased. Mathematically-minded people will note the bearing of pensions on the taxpayer. Taking the number of contributors to the unemployment tax as 440,000, the pension load is now £20 a head, and this is only the beginning of the Government's programme. Of course, it cannot be pretended that the payments in any of the scales are generous, or even adequate for a normal standard of life, but the best insurance against destitution for many who are to-day pensioners of the State would be congenial work at a good wage. In a healthy condition of affairs every able-bodied man should be in work, and only the physically unfit, the aged and families bereft of the breadwinner should be a charge upon the State. It is one of the unsatisfactory features of the prßent Government's record over nine months that the unemployment figures have remained high, and the placing of a large army of additional men on sustenance, of whom it Avas stated recently that 5000 were supplying false returns, may be paving the i way for a i. ;avy increase in pensions later,