Social security changes would cost $94m

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32873, 23 March 1972, Page 5

Social security changes would cost $94m

Doubling of the family benefit is one of the recommendations brought down by the Royal Commission on Social Security. The commission sees no need for any radical changes in the social security system, but makes more than 100 recommendations for modifications.

Increases in benefits and new benefits would cost another sl4lm and , lift the annual cost of i social security cash' benefits to s4som.

But if other recommendations are also adopted—notably the proposed abolition of taxation exemption for children—there will be savings of s47m and the net cost of the recommendations will be s94m a year. Of this s94m, slBm has already been authorised by the Government in its provisional benefit increases introduced last month.

The commission recommends that sickness, invalid, and unemployment benefits—increased on February 16— should be further increased.

It proposes that the benefit for a married couple, which was $29 a week till last month, should be about $33 a week, and that the single benefit, formerly $l6, should be about $2O and paid from the age of 18. It proposes that the minimum age for eligibility be reduced from 16 years to 15 and that a rate of about $l5 a week be paid to those under 18. Another recommendation is that a domestic purposes benefit be introduced, to provide for solo parents, for women looking after sick or infirm persons, and for certain women living alone. The proposed weekly assistance for families would be:— For a married couple, where the wage earner is ill or unemployed: With one dependent child .. 36.00 With two dependent children . 37.50 j With three or more 39.00 j For a solo parent: With one dependent child . 30.00 With two dependent children .. 33.00 With three dependent children 34.50 With four or more 36.00 In addition, under the commission’s proposals, there would be $3 a week family benefit for each child.

The commission proposes another new benefit—a chiropody benefit for people aged 65 and over who are referred by a doctor to a registered chiropodist. It recommends that supple-

mentary assistance—which is available at up to $4.50 a week for single persons and $6 a week for couples—should be continued in its present scope and form. Another recommendation is “that those likely to be in need of supplementary assistance are made aware of its availability, emphasising that

the provision of supplementary assistance where it is needed is part of the community’s responsibility, and is not to be regarded as charity.” The commission points out

■ variations in extra income ; allowed to those on benefits, ■ and recommends that there ! should be one allowable ; other-income level, that this should be $lO a week (instead : of the present $l3 or $l7 a

i week). It recommends that , benefits be reduced by $1 for i every $2 of weekly income : over $lO but not exeeding $25 ; and that above $25 a week . the reduction in the benefit be $1 for $l.