AID IN BUYING CARS

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26122, 26 May 1950, Page 9

AID IN BUYING CARS

FINANCIAL HELP FOR DISABLED MEN GRANTS FROM PATRIOTIC FUND (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON. May 25. Disabled servicemen of both world wars who require cars for transport —either because they are so badly disabled that private transport is necessary or because vehicles are needed to , assist them in their rehabilitation—will be aided financially by the New Zealand Patriotic Fund Board. A meeting of the board to-day decided to supplement the Rehabilitation Department’s grant of £2OO towards the purchase of a car in all cases of persons with a disability of 85 per cent, where the patriotic authorities considered a car necessary. A general maximum of £2OO ’would be contributed towards the vehicle’s cost from patriotic funds—£loo by the provincial councils and £lOO by the New Zealand board—but in' special cases larger grants would be sanctioned. The board recommended that the full cost of the car. with the exception of the £2OO Government grant, should be made available to double amputees. • The Government grant wa.s considered sufficient for single amputees in a fairly good financial position living near public transport, but in cases where single amputees lived off transport routes a grant of £2O-0 towards the car should be made. No grant should be made to single amputees living on an economic pension unless the amputee suffered some other additional disability. The board also decided that where necessary a maintenance allowance for a vehicle should be made, and when applications for vehicles were rejected consideration should be given to granting a transport allowance.