THE LODGE MEMBER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 228, 27 September 1938, Page 5

THE LODGE MEMBER.

A DAMAGING BLOW.

SOCIAL SECURITY SCHEME. MEANS TEST THE BIG FLAW. (By 11. W. GOURLAY.) The institution of- a national lienkh service and a superannuation seller:'*; would have been received with en'.huri asm in New Zealand had the nie.isincs for providing them not discount-'1 the value of individual effort and ignored the provident. There are very few people in New Zealand who hav; not made some provision for the future either by contribution to a friendly society or a sick benefit society or t > a superannuation fund. While t\n fewimprovident one«s are being forced i'flo providence, the rest are being forced into the ridiculous position of having to pay twice over for their benefits. The provisions of the Social Sectritv Aet are particularly damaging "> friendly societies. Since 1542 these societies have carried on their b.'iieli -ial work with every satis; action to their member*. Their affairs have lien prudently managed by comptcnt officer* elected from their own ranks, mti'iy of them giving gratuitous service, inspired by their love of benevolent works. In place of this there is to be the «oml- - substitute of a fJovcrnment IVp;>rtment with its hordes of officials, costing in the first vear alone no less a sun than £8.")0.000.

Insidious Means Test. A lodge makes no distinction of income among its members. One and all receive the same benefits for the same contributions. Social Security offers the lodge member £5 per week ( £4 social security plus £1 lodge) as the maximum rate of sick pay, but to receive this he must have a family of at least nine children under sixteen years of age and an income of not less than £7 10/ per week. But another lodge member earning £."> a week, though he has nine children under age, can receive a maximum of only £3 ti/S, that is two-thirds of his weekly earnings, and of this his lodge contributes £1. In other Words, there is applied to sick pay under the .Social Security Act an insidious means test.

The cost of the scheme is a point well worth serious consideration. For a sum of from £4 to £j per annum, a lodge member receives sick pay, medical and hospital attention and medicine, and is entitled to a funeral benefit. He has social amenities and privileges that are most attractive, though these are purely incidental to the benevolent work of the lodge. The grandiose Social Security Act would destroy a!! this, offering as a bribe the dry and empty husk of Mr. Nash's "eight points." Briefly these are that lodges can pay social security sick pay to their member*, that the funeral benefit will not be taxed, that societies will be reimbursed for services rendered to the security fund, and that members with special knowledge will be included on administration committees. The other four points are various paraphrases of these four. Obviously the Minister was hard put to it to jus'tify the Act in thu eyes of friendly society' members. There is nothing in his eight points to disprove tl-fe fact that the Act deals a dama<iin« blow to all friendly societies in New Zealand.

Illusory Benefits. One of the charms of the friendly society method of distributing benefits is its simplicity. The amounts paid each quarter are approximately 5/ for cioctor, 4/ for hospital and medicine, and 3/ for management, 3d for social and benevolent, and from 7/ to 13/ (according to age at joining) for sick and funeral funds. Under Social Security they will not need to pay the first two amounts (9/ altogether), but instead there will be 1/ in the £1 on all income, and registration fees for all members of the family over sixteen years of age. Even the mother must pay her 5/ vearlv, and 5/ must be paid, too. on behalf of* those children over sixteen who are still attending school.

• Naturally, it is to be expected that there will be considerable extra benefits i for this heavy extra payment. Well of i course, there is some b'enfit. There are still available the old benefits of doctor ( hospital and medicine, for which the • sum of 36/ a year was paid. In addition i there is the maternity benefit. As a lodge member he has always been entitled to the National Provident Fund > maternity benefit if his income is less , than £300, but this must now go on the , debit side. Then there is siipernnniia- { tion, which may be attractive if he is . not already contributing to such a fund, and it were not just an old aire pension under another name. Unemployment benefits he had thought out-of-date under competent administration, but apparently they must still be paid for. Crazily Pretentions Act. There are so many thinga provided for in this crazily pretentious Act that money, much money, must be found to pay for them all, and the lodge member who prided himself on his forethought and gloried in his independence must be regimented with the rest. He is faced with the necessity of abandoning his lodge membership, but hero he is faced with another problem. The total funds of the societies in New Zealand are more than £5,000,000, and the average capital per member more than £42. If he forfeits his membership he forfeits also his interest in this large amount of capital. However, it will l* so necessary for him to economise in his outlav for thrift purposes that his lodge membership Mill be too great a luxury for him to continue. Since the Social Securitv Act makes lodge membership a luxury those who at present find it no easy matter to keep their contributions regularly paid will have no option but to resign. A Dismal Outlook. Financially, the outlook is dismal. Although there are total assets of over £5,000,000 they are in the form of mortgages and land and buildings (lodge rooms). Although the critics sometimes say that such huge reserves show that members pay too heavily for their benefits, this is not so. Three things have contributed to this healthy growth, namely, the earning of a rate of interest greater than that calculated, the secession of careless members, and aj sickness experience less than was ex- ' pected. In 1937 £215,000 was paid out I in sick and funeral benefits in return i f0r_£206,700 paid in contributions, while £177,800 was received in interest on investments. I am afraid that Mr. Shrimpton's remarks in evidence to the committee are as concise a summary as can be found. He said, "Unless the friendly societies are given an important part to play in the new organisation, 1 envisage a slow , strangling of the friendly society move-1 ment." As it happens, the only role that they have been allotted in * the comedy is! that of "noises off." '