OLD AGE PENSIONS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1197, 4 August 1911, Page 2

OLD AGE PENSIONS.

4 . ANNUAL REPORT. Tie Old Age Pensions report gives particulars of the working of the amending Act of last year. Tho main features of this Act were:—(l) The restoration of the allowance of .£SO from cash and other forms of property not constituting a home (discontinued under the 1909 Act); and (2) a straight-out exemption of .£340 from the home (including furniture and personal effects) of an applicant in lieu of the provision of the 1909 Act, whereby tho home was charged as income at the rate of £1 for every J2lO in the net capital value thereof. The effect of this amendment, which camo into operation on January 1, was to immediately increase tho amount being paid to tho pensioners already on the roll by the sum of ,£11,813 per annum, or, approximately, .£IOOO per month. Of tho 15,790 pensioners on tho roll when the Act was passed, 12,092 were already in receipt of the full pension. Of tho remaining 3698 who were being paid less than £26, all but 39G-r-nameiy, 3302—received increases totalling tho ,£11,843 per annum already referred to. These 390 represent those pensioners whose pensions wore reduced on account of income, and were not affected o-ne way or tho other by tho amendment, with the exception of the limited number of some thirty married pensioners, who, with husbands or wives (not on the roll) possessing homes exceeding in value the amount ot the allowance—i.e., .£3lO, will at the next succeeding renewal of their pensions suffer slight reductions if their positions remain unaltered; reductions, however, which will for tho most part be niado up by the increased pensions payable, as between the 1909 and 1910 Acts, to tho said husbands or wives should they bo admitted to tho roll. The number of pensioners on the roll on March 31, including GS4 Maoris, was 16,020, being an increase of 700 on the figures 'of the previous year. This is regarded as a normal increase. The gross payments made on account of pensions during tho year totalled ,£383,392 103. Bd., being an increase ou tV figures of the previous year of .Si*"" 10s. Bd. The net charge against the Consolidated Fund being ,£332,791 lls. Id., to which has been applied a credit of iCIG.ToS 9s. Sd., being revenue from the national endowment lands. The cost of administration during tho yoar was .£3SO2 Ms. lOd., the percentage of this cost to tho gross payments on account of pensions being 0.99 per cent. Tho above sum included salaries .£3219 Bs. 4d.

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