SOCIAL SECURITY CONFERENCE

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26032, 8 February 1950, Page 4

SOCIAL SECURITY CONFERENCE

NEW CONVENTION TO BE DRAFTED (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, February 7. A revision of social security conventions and recommendations of the International Labour Organisation is the first task of the committee of social security experts of the 1.L.0. meeting at Wellington to-morrow. The committee is composed of leading social security experts from 24 countries. The International Social Security Association and the InterAmerican Committee on Social Security are each represented by two experts, and Australia, although not represented on the committee, has been asked to send an observer. The revision will affect 22 conventions and 18 recommendations adopted at various conferences of the 1.L.0. Most of these were adopted between 1925 and 1933, and since then the laws o'f many countries have not only attained but surpassed the minimum standards advocated by these conventions and recommendations. The committee has therefore to preparg the way for a new convention which will take into account recent developments in the field of social security. Other items on the agenda are the training of personnel administering social security institutions and actuarial aspects of adjustments of benefits to the cost of living. A statement from the committee says that after New Zealand led the way in 1938 by adopting a scheme covering all risks, the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium followed suit. Extensive reforms are being planned at present by several countries, aiming at the introduction of all-embracing social security schemes.