GREAT WAR PENSIONS

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 189, 12 August 1939, Page 12 (Supplement)

GREAT WAR PENSIONS

SOCIAL SECURITY REACTIONS

Probably no one is in a better position to comment on the position of the war pensioner and his dependents, as affected by the Social Security legislation, than is Mr. R. fi. Mason, secretary of the Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association, who handles hundreds of claims annually and for weeks at a time appears as the soldier'* representative liefore the War Pensions Appeal Board in support of applications.

In a statement ar the quarterly meeting of the Auckland Returned .Soldiers' Association he explained . several matters of vital interest thus:— Allowances

I he war veteran*' allowance has been increased from 20/ to 25/ j>er week for a veteran and 15/ for his wife. The War Pensions Board has discretion "ill special circumstances" to increase this to .'SO/ and 20/ for the wife. Children under 10 (up to four) 5/ per week each. Children under every form of civil pension, widows, miners, invalids, all receive 10/ per week each and orphan children 15/ per week. A claim for war

veterans' children was made to Cabinet last year, but unsuccessfully. At the last conference of the X.Z.R.S.A. (June. i!)3!>) it was decided to make a fresh claim for this allowance to be increased to 10/ per child.

Partial Disability Pensions The class affected is the 15/ per week pensioner. Subject to a means test the wife may receive 7/0 per week plus .'l/9 for each child under l(i. Prior to March 31, 1 !>:«». many of these men received the pension and sustenance but the first 17/0 per week of the combined pension of the mail and his wife was not taken into account. Despite tho fact that the Social Security pamphlet issued last year stated on psijjo 2:1 that "War disability [tension up to 17/<> a, week mav be drawn in addition to unemployment benefit, in April. Itl.'lt), those pensioners were advised either verbally or bv circular that no unemployment benefit (sustenance) would be paid in respect to dependents who wore receiving war pensions. This means that in these cases the wives are required to surrender their war pensions for themselves and their children or they will receive no sustenance whatever. If a wife in such a case declines to do this, the husband is treated a« though he were a single man and receives 20/ sustenance onlynothing for the wife and children.

Age Benefits Prior to March 31, 1039, an aged parent of a son killed was in receipt of a war pension of 1(1/ per week (in some '■asos 1.1/) and was able to draw in addition an old a<re jK-nsion of 22/6 per week —a total of 32/ti per week. Under the Social Security .Act the age benefit wa* made 30/ per week with an allowable margin of 20/ per week income from other sources, but no increase was

made in regard to the eases quoted above. Worse than this, a recipient of such a war pension now becoming eligible to apply for an age benefit must tirst surrender tlie war pension or the application for age benefit, will be declined. This is a special form of war [>ension and requires some explanation. An ordinary disability pension is granted to an ex-soldier not as a reward of compensation hut as an attempt by economic means to make him a whole man again. ,\ parent s pension is granted only when that parent can show that before t lie war the son afterwards killed in action actually supported or contributed to the support, of that parent, arid the pension is therefore compensation—not for the loss of the son, but for the loss of monetary maintenance that lie presumably would have continued paying if he had lived. This provision for compensation is therefore taken away by the Social Security Act.