The Dominion. SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 1939. THE SOCIAL SECURITY SCHEME

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 160, 1 April 1939, Page 10

The Dominion. SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 1939. THE SOCIAL SECURITY SCHEME

From today the general public will be called on to bear the cost of the new Social Security Scheme. The main health benefits will not be available to the public, and may not be operative for some time to come, but they will have to be paid for immediately, whether they are enjoyed or not. No one knows, or appears to know, what the ultimate cost of the scheme to the country will be. Ihe cost social services last year (excluding the education vote) was about £9,000,000, in addition to which £4,239,000 was spent on unemployment relief. The new scheme provides for the estimated expenditure of more £17,000,000 for pensions and health benefits, to which has to be added an indefinite sum which will still be required to provide Statesubsidized employment for those who otherwise would be workless. Various estimates of the increased cost of the scheme to die country have been made, the sum of £8,000,000 being regarded as a possible minimum. Whatever the amount may prove to be, it will be an increasing sum year by year, and on the statistical inf oi mation available there will'be a diminishing proportion of the population within the wealth-producing age groups to bear the cost. In othei words, there will gradually be more, of the population in the benefitreceiving groups and fewer, proportionately, in the age groups \yluch have to pay for them. It is regrettable that almost from the outset the financing of the scheme has been based on optimistic assumptions rather than on solid facts and cautious calculations. The Minister of Finance has been content to assume that, because the national income has increased at a certain rate for a given number of years, it will continue to maintain that rate of increase. No provision has been 'made for the creation of a reserve fund to provide against the contingencies of good and bad times. In consequence, the so-called security of the scheme becomes insecure. Householders throughout the Dominion this week received an unpleasant reminder of the new liabilities imposed on them under . the scheme. In the past, particularly in the recent pre-election period, they heard a great deal about the benefits they were to enjoy. Now it is beginning to be brought home to them that they themselves have to foot the bill.. Many thousands of women, and many thousands of boys and girls of 16 years of age and upwards, now find themselves for the first time caught directly in the tax-collector’s net. All have to register—married women, single women, girls and boys over 16 years" of age—whether they earn wages or not. There are a few exemptions, but practically everyone over 16 years of age has to register and pay the annual fee. On top of this, of course, all who earn wages have to pay a weekly tax of 1/- in the £l. Domestic seivants not only have to pay this tax on the wages they actually receive, but they have to pay on the estimated value of their board and lodging. All these things, and more, have been added to the obligations and responsibilities of the everyday citizen and his wife and children. Moreover, as stated, they will have to pay for medical services that are not yet available to them. It is difficult to see how the Government can justify the imposition of the full 1/- in the £ tax which was to provide for medical. services, as well as the other benefits under the scheme, when the medical services are not forthcoming. It seems clear that the Government is going to experience a good deal of difficulty in bringing its proposals into practical operation. The administrative work must involve the employment of a huge and costly staff, working at high pressure for some time to come. It may be hoped that adequate precautions have been taken to prevent the taxpayers suffering a repetition of the class of fraud practised so widely at one period by unprincipled recipients of sustenance payments from the State.