Pension review urged

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32634, 16 June 1971, Page 2

Pension review urged

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 15. Experience of the effects of inflation in the latter part of 1970

demonstrated that the present two-year period for reviewing war pensions was too long, the president of the R.S.A. (Sir Hamilton Mitchell) told the annual conference of the association in Wellington today.

“If a shorter interval is accepted as reasonable for the review of remuneration of large sections of the community then it is reasonable that the rate of war pensions should be reviewed at a similar interval,” he said.

“We trust that the Government will accede to the request that the interval be reduced. After all, the number of pensioners is only a tiny part of the whole population.”

But these people, 5200 widows and 25,477 pensioners, had borne for years, in some cases more than 50, the disability received in helping to preserve the freedom which gave each of us the wholesome way of life which we treasured, he said.

After years of negotiation and discussion the war service pension was now a fact, said Sir Hamilton Mitchell. There would be growing pains, and undoubtedly the future would disclose that improvements in detail were required. “But for the present a great step forward has been taken to bring assistance to those who are in real need owing to the inability of our present medical knowledge to assess the effects of strain and stress of a period outside one’s normal way of life.”

The Budget increase in means test and social security benefits was most welcome, as was the improved formula for the diminution of these things when earnings were in excess of the allowable income. However, defence was still the “Cinderella” of the Budget “There is no 10 per cent increase in spending for that department, and with increased pay allowances the planning must allow for a substantial reduction in manning or in the provision of equipment or in maintenance of existing establishments, and probably in all three.

“The association remains

firmly of the opinion that the Government should act on the advice of the defence experts and make provision accordingly. The association is not, and has never held itself out to be, an expert on defence.

“Its sole aim is to see that there is no repetition of past

occurrences, but that our defence should be adequate. That standard cannot be attained unless the department is granted a reasonable portion of the national cake. We will continue to press the policy approved by this conference.

“Whatever the field, the association requests from the Government only what it believes to be right and proper and in the interests not only of the members but the whole country.”