SUPERANNUATION PLAN

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22419, 4 June 1938, Page 14

SUPERANNUATION PLAN

PAYMENTS TO COUPLES LOWER AGE LIMIT FOR WOMEN REPORTED MODIFICATION OF PROPOSALS It is reliably reported that the national superannuation plan, when it is submitted to Parliament shortly, will be modified to provide for married couples who would otherwise suffer through a discrepancy in ages. This, too, is said to be the only major change proposed in the plan. The Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, said on Thursday that “the proposal is now being widened to meet more people and when the bill now being prepared is presented to Parliament it will be something that will excel anything in the civilised world. The original outline of the national superannuation . scheme made it clear that the 30s a week superannuation will be paid to men and women at the age of 60, with allowances for income. An anomaly was immediately apparent, for the plan meant that in the case of a husband older than his wife he would have to wait until his wife reached 60, too, before the full effect of the pension scheme could be taken advantage of. For instance, a husband at 60 might have a wife aged 50. That, in fact, is not an unusual case. The original plan would operate in such a way that it would not be until the wife was 60 that the couple would be able to draw the. £3 a week, and until that time the couple would have to live, failing any other income, on the husband’s superannuation of Jos a week. > Met by Pension Scheme The anomaly became more apparent when it was realised that this common discrepancy in ages was provided for in the existing old age pension scheme. An applicant tor an old age pension must have reached the age of 65 if a male and 60 if a female. But the first plan for the national superannuation scheme made no such provision. Now, it is stated in an authoritative quarter, this is to be rectified. How important the change is can be estimated from available figures dealing with ages of married persons. In the last 10 years, and most likely for every year since the figures have been recorded, the mean age of bridegrooms in marriages in New Zealand has been anything from three to four years above that of brides. That means that a big proportion of married couples must be in a situation where the institution of a common 60-year level for the superannuation payment would have left husbands keeping their wives and themselves on the bare 30s a week. Naturally many would have had sufficient other income to bring the rate to a higher level, but the anomaly would have been seriously felt by very many couples. Position of Single Women? How the adjustment will be made is not yet known. Apparently the same procedure will be followed as with pensions, but on a wider basis, the wife being eligible for the superannuation possibly 10 years sooner than the husband. That is, the amount will be payable for the men at 60 and the woman at 50, in the case of married couples. It is even suggested that single women will •be paid the superannuation earlier than single men, in line \vith the existing pension scheme.