SOCIAL SECURITY SCHEME
FRIENDLY SOCIETIES’ POSITION MINISTER DENIES COUNCIL’S STATEMENT AUCKLAND, December 13. A statement issued yesterday by the Dominion Council of Friendly Societies in Wellington was described to-day by the Minister for Health (the Hon. 11. T Armstrong) as foolish and untrue. The statement referred to remarks allegedly made in the House of Representatives recently by the Minister on the medical benefits under the Soda Security Act. The council said that the remarks of the Minister were apt to convey the impression that only the head of a friendly society members family received medical benefits, but the council desired to make it dj- B ’- that not only the member himself, but his wife and children, received medical benefits. , “I do not know where they managed to get that peculiar statement from, said Mr Armstrong. “Certainly not from any statement made by me either inside or outside Parliament. "In explaining the difference between friendly societies’ benefits and social security proposals, I did explain that whereas contributions paid lor medical benefits through friendly societies by the heads of families covered the whole family, we would pay a contribution to the doctor for each member of the family under 16 years. I have been a member of the Manchester Unity, 1.0.0. F., for 43 years and am the father of a family, so_ I ought to be conversant with what the position is. . . "I cannot imagine the Dominion Council of the Friendly Societies giving out for publication such a statement. which is calculated to injure the prestige of a Minister whose only object is to do something • of lasting good for the masses, including members of friendly societies.”
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Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23203, 14 December 1940, Page 17
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276SOCIAL SECURITY SCHEME Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23203, 14 December 1940, Page 17
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