The Dominion. TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 1938. PROTEST AGAINST INJUSTICE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 178, 26 April 1938, Page 10

The Dominion. TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 1938. PROTEST AGAINST INJUSTICE

The motion of protest carried by the meeting of the Wellington City Council’s officers and other employees on Friday last emphasises the injustice and inequity of the Government’s national superannuation proposals. The corporation, like many other public and private concerns has a superannuation scheme of its own. It offers its contributors more liberal benefits than those proposed under the Government’s scheme. There is no. means test. That is to say, superannuitant on retiring receives what he is fully entitled to on the basis of his contributions. What he may receive from other sources makes 'no difference. As is now generally known under the Government s scheme everyone must contribute, but not everyone will benefit, the objection raised at the meeting referred to was that it was unfair that people contributing to one superannuation scheme should be compelled to pay into another the benefits from which might be withheld under the means test. . The Government at the outset promised a. national superannuation scheme under which all would benefit. It declared that there was no intention of interfering with existing superannuation schemes. Bv insisting tin a means test, however, it did away with the national nature of the scheme and has in effect converted the beneffi received from any other scheme into an actual disqualification tor me State benefit. It is not as if the contribution to the State scheme were a mere trifle. The proposal is that it should be 1/- in the i. For those on the income mark of, say, £250 a year, that means an annual contribution of £l2/10/-, and in the case of those contributing to existing schemes and to the thrifty it means an outlay from w..ich there may be absolutely no return whatever. Under the Government s proposals, as has been pointed out on previous occasions, the thrifty and provident are to be penalised for their self-reliance and selfSaCri The protest made by the employees of the Wellington City Corporation is reasonable and understandable. They like others resent the unfairness of the superannuation scheme as outlined by Mi. Sa va g e —a scheme which the country was told had been fully considered and carefully planned by the Socialist Government Everyone was led to believe that all that was required was to draft the necessary legislation to give effect to the Governments plan Instead it has been made abundantly plain that the so-called plan is little more than a hotch-potch of muddled ideas which if given effect to won d have harmful reactions and’ would cost an enormous sum annual.y taken from the earnings of all classes without any just regard tor an equitable distribution of the benefits promised.