Pension increase; review to follow

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33252, 15 June 1973, Page 1

Pension increase; review to follow

An increase of $2.50 a week for married couples, giving them $37.50 a week, and $1.50 a week for single beneficiaries, making their basic income $22.50, was announced in the Budget for all income-tested benefits and pensions.

There would be consequential adjustments to various other benefits, the Minister of Finance (Mr Rowling) said, and details would be announced by the Minister of Social Welfare (Mr King).

The superannuation benefit would continue to be subject to a flat-rate withholding tax deduction, adjusted for the higher gross rate of benefit, the Budget said. All beneficiaries receiving supplementary assistance would receive the full increase in benefits. Arrangements were being completed to implement the Government’s policy of a rebate for most income-tested beneficiaries of one-half of their telephone rentals. The Government believed that, in the past, benefit ad-

justments had been too infrequent to protect beneficiaries from the loss of real purchasing power caused by rising prices, Mr Rowling said. The increases announced in the Budget would be followed by a review towards the end of this year, and there would be a review regularly every six months from then. The increases he announced last evening had been calculated, on the best information available, to compensate fully beneficiaries for price rises since the last increase in benefits. INCREASE s92m The Minister said that the provision in the Estmates for monetary benefits and war pensions this year was ss6om, an increase of s92m, or nearly 20 per cent, on the amount provided in the main Estimates last year.