SOCIAL SECURITY FUND

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25269, 22 August 1947, Page 8

SOCIAL SECURITY FUND

EXPENDITURE EXCEEDS ESTIMATE

COST OF UNIVERSAL FAMILY BENEFIT

WELLINGTON, August 21

The total expenditure out of the Social Security Fund last year was £36,825,0u0, which was approximately £1,000.000 in excess of the Budget estimate. said the Minister of f inance (Mr W. Nash) in'the House of Representatives this evening. Revenue for the fund from the social security charge was also in excess of the estimate, and more than offset the increased expenditure.

The economic security emanating from the social security scheme was so much a part of the national life that it was no longer necessary to emphasise its advantages, the Minister said. The major achievement last year was the introduction of the universal family benefit. It was anticipated that for the first year the cost would be £12.620.000. and in the accounts published it would be seen that the actual cost was £12.681,000.

As provided for in the Budget last year £lB.OOO 000 was transferred from the Consolidated Fund. As was intended. the net result of operations during the year on the fund increased the working balance, which was slightly more than £5,000.000 at the end of the year. The contribution from the Consolidated Fund for the current year had been fixed at £16.000.000 to ensure the stability of the fund by maintaining approximately the level reached at March 31.

Giving figures for the current year, the Minister said that items of expen-

diture were as follows: monetary benefits. other than family benefits, £19.368.000; family benefits, £13.195,000; medical benefits, £6,493.000; administration expenses. £775.000; emergency benefits, £208.000; a total of £40.039.000. Receipts were: social security charge, £23.700.000; miscellaneous receipts. £27.000: transfer from Consolidated Fund. £16.000.000: a total of £39.727,000. “The transfer from jhe Consolidated Fund, of course, provides the balancing figure, and. having rebuilt the fund as I indicated last year, it has now been possible to reduce this contribution,” the Minister said. “The expenditure out of the Social Security Fund is, of coursd. only one aspect of the Government’s record of improved social amenities. which include substantial increases in the Consolidated Fund votes for health, mental hospitals, education, and war pensions. Taking all these together, and ignoring the transfers between the two funds, we find that the expenditure on all social services has risen from £7.756.000 in 1935-36 to £53,871,000 in 1946-47.”