‘Greatest Social Problem’

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32303, 22 May 1970, Page 2

‘Greatest Social Problem ’

(N.Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON, May 21.

Unmarried mothers constituted New Zealand’s greatest social problem, the Royal Commission on Social Security was told yesterday.

This comment, in submissions from the Disabled re - establishment League presented by a board member (Sir Hamilton Mitchell) and its general secretary (Mr R. G. Cox), was made by the social worker with the league’s Wellington branch.

Other views in the submission were provided by the supervisor of the Artificial Limb Centre of Christchurch (Mr I. E. Cooper) and by Mr Cox.

Far greater coverage in the field of unmarried mothers would result from the recently-announced Combined Department of Social Wel-

fare, continued the social worker.

“Case work services should be especially set aside, and in those cases where the mother clearly indicates her wish to keep the child with her, financial security should be provided.” This would enable the mother to have the child cared for while she was in employment and would lessen the fear that the child could not be adequately provided for in cases of illness.

The public image of the Social Security Department

tended to be poor, it was said, and could only be improved with a conscious effort and good professional decisions at all levels. It was considered that a good response was forthcoming in cases where there was unpleasant publicity or recourse to the Ombudsman, but that an injustice might be done in similar cases where the same pressures did not exist Earnings Exemption The social worker suggested that rehabilitation benefits should ensure basic financial security for the individual with an earnings exemption large enough for real incentive, and that there should be greater flexibility in the allowance of widows’ benefits. The supervisor of the Artificial Limb Centre wants

wheelchairs for the physically disabled supplied under the same conditions as hydracadence limbs. “We are allowed to spend unlimited time and money fitting limbs to the seriously handicapped, some of whom will never walk, but if it is decided that the patient would be mobile in a wheelchair and at a fraction of the cost of limbs, the supply of one from Social Security is subject to a means test,” it was stated. The submission continued: “In spite of assertions to the contrary, no amputee can be quite as adroit with standard controls of a motor-car as is a person in possession of all normal extremities.” More should be done, it was suggested, to assist and encourage amputees to have cars suitably adapted. Mr Cox, in his submission, asked why the family breadwinner, in “these modern days when the stress and strain of working life can cause him to have to give up work” and his family had to exist on a sickness benefit when a fellow employee who broke a leg could obtain 80 per cent of his tax-free income.

Individual Submission

Mrs L. Craig, of Mangaroa, in an individual submission, said that the principles of the Social Security scheme were based upon inherent values and principles of the human condition in any society, and should remain unchanged. “The individual human is unique, and therefore each one of us has something which is priceless to impress the community with. Deny that individuality, and we deny ourselves a heritage never regained.” “Social welfare,” she submitted, “should not be a part of any nation’s management, but the whole meaning to that society’s existence, with a total striving no only to achieve but also to maintain the individual in a total state of peace, justice, and joy." •