SAVINGS-CAMPAIGN BROADCAST

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27990, 9 June 1956, Page 10

SAVINGS-CAMPAIGN BROADCAST

MINISTER REPLIES TO CRITICISM

A savings-campaign broadcast by the Postmaster-General (Mr T. P. Shand) has been criticised .by a correspondent in a letter to the editor of ‘The Press.”

The correspondent, who signed himself “Rip Van Winkle,” wrote: “In a savings-campaign address, the Postmaster-General, Mr T. P. Shand, included insurance and excluded its severe penalties and high interest rates for loans, and omitted to name the National Provident Fund and its benefits as an excellent form of thrift. He also included the National Savings Account at 3J per cent.; but excluded the fact that the interest rate is retrospectively reduced for any amount withdrawn after a period of two years. Will Mr Shand state if insurance and assurance groups are registered as moneylenders, why the National Provident Fund was omitted, and why the retrospective reduction in National Savings was excluded?” When this letter was referred to Mr Shand he said that he was in full agreement with “Rip Van Winkle” about the value of the National Provident Fund, and might equally aptly have added the Public Service Superannuation Fund. Failure to make specific reference to that in his broadcast was not in any way intended to belittle the work they did, he said. “There is a severe limit to the amount of material one can include in a sevenminute address.

“Interest on National Savings is paid at 3 per cent, as stated and will be paid at 3J per cent, provided that the investor keeps his contract to leave the money for two years. “If he requires assistance in case of hardship he is permitted to treat his investment in National Savings as if it were a Post Office Savings deposit and withdraw the money. To the extent that he does so it is treated as a Post Office Savings deposit for interest purposes.

“Life insurance companies are not registered as moneylenders, but are set up under appropriate legislative authority. Some of the largest ones are mutual companies in which all the profits accrue to the policy-holders and the investor in these companies is assured that almost all the profit will, in fact, accrue to policy-holders by way of bonus. Other companies must offer similar terms to be competitive,” said Mr Shand.