RANGE OF BENEFITS

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 206, 1 September 1938, Page 14

RANGE OF BENEFITS

202,650 PERSONS. MINISTER'S ANALYSIS. MOTHERHOOD ASSISTANCE. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Under the Social Security Bill 202,650 persons will receive benefits, according tov» statement made in the House of Representatives last night by Mr Nash when replying to Opposition criticism in the course of the second reading debate. The figures, which the Finance Minister gave, were made up as followAge benefit 80,000, invalids 11700 widows 0000, widowed mothers 5500 orphans 1300, war pensions (not included in the bill) 24,600, war veterans 2200, family allowances 07,000, miners 1100, sundry pensioners 250. Proceeding to outline the contingencies pnmded for in the bill, Mr. Nash said that statistics showed that one wife in every IS married couples would lose her husband before she was 00, one in every 27 children would be fatherless before reaching the age of 16, one in every 333 children would lose both parents before the age of IC, one in every 85 people in the Dominion would become an invalid for lifer between the ages of 16 and 60, one in every two of male invalids would have a wife and one in every three would Jiave a child as well. All those contingencies were met bv the bill.

Mr. H. S. S. Kyle (National. Riccarton) : At what stage will we all become invalids?

Mr. Nash: The provisions of the bill will gradually reduce the number o* invalids as the yeans pass. The Minister' went on to deal with instances of hardship caused by loss of working time and by growth of" families, and said that there was hardship in about 13.000 homes in the Dominion when a child was born. At least £450,000 would be made available in those cases for maternity services. There would be an automatic qualification for the benefit, which would be available to eryone.