N.O.W. might get a Furmage refund

Press, 12 August 1978, Page 6

N.O.W. might get a Furmage refund

'! The Christchurch Solo ■.Parents’ Committee may be .‘refunded the $l5OO it raised [to help support the Ham■'ilton solo parent, Mrs Beth Furmage. Mr Furmage's lawyer, Mr I •; Stephen Williams, has said I [he will appeal directly tol (the Director-General of the: !1 Social Welfare Department' r[(Mr S. J. Callaghan) for the[ .[gifts to be returned to the! ((National Organisation of ’(Women. •I Last month the departement reinstated Mrs Fury mage's domestic purposes; (benefit, but withheld arrears! ; :covering the seven months, '(she spent in Tokanui Hospi-I ■(tai, and the funds from the; H Christchurch committee. ■( Mr Williams said he and (Mrs Furmage would be more i[ than happy if the depart■lment agreed to repay the ‘(Christchurch women. “It is Only right and proper from

ila moral point of view,” he •[said. I A decision on whether an I appeal would also be made [to recover the arrears for (the time Mrs Furmage spent '[in Tokanui had not been ‘made. Mrs Furmage was ! admitted to the hospital suf-! ' I fering from emotional strain ■ :! during her public legal! [battle with the department. '! N.O.W. may yet make its; (own appeal ter the depart-; ;ment. “We are still very angry about this." said the Christ-: ; [ church branch president ;|(Mrs Ann Elstob) yesterday. Members are concerned (that if Mrs Furmage’s ap"peal were successful it! would be only on the ground[ I that the money was paid; ’ back to N.O.W. ( “Our first priority is that) Mrs Furmage has the, money,” said Mrs Elstob. I

• | “We hope that if we can *pjpeal, the department, would i'then consider paying her the -arrears.” If Mrs Furmage were not Jto receive the money, I'N.O.W. believes its com. dmittee should be refunded. It J would use the money to ihelp other solo parents Mrs Elstob also believes a i policy on payments to solo ; parents should he applied J uniformly throughout New (Zealand. She says that at < present this does not seem . |to happen-. “Policy on payments of the emergency benefit, for I; instance, appears to differ n . the various districts. Payintents seem to be made to the inter[ipretation of legislation by iheads of the departments in (each area of the country,” I she said. “There should be a 'i national policy and personalities should not enter into