GERMANY'S PENSION SCHEME.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 51, 2 March 1909, Page 7

GERMANY'S PENSION SCHEME.

WIDOWS AND ORPHANS. By Telegraph.-—Press Association. —Copyright. BERLIN, Ist March. Germany proposes to add the insur-ai-ce of widows and orphans to her existing old-age- pension scheme, the employer and the employee each to pay half the cost, while, the Government will add 50 marks to each widow's pension and 30 marks to each orphan's. Provision is also to bo made for sickress, and the insurance of agricultural workers, -servßDts, and casual labourers. The principle which is followed in Germany is that of control of industry and life by the State. To that end the Sick Insurance Law of 1883, the Accident Insurance Law 1 of 1884, and the Invalidity and Old-age Insurance Law of 1880 were passed. The last-named Act subjects to compulsory insurance, from the age of 16, all persons working for wages in every branch of trade, and also managing officials and clerks, whose whose salaries are 2000 marks (£100) or less. The pension for old age is granted, without proof of disability,^ to all who have completed their 70th year. The money to pay the invalidity and old-age pensions is furnished jointly by the empire, the employers, and the employed. The empire contributes to each annuity the fixed sum of 50 marks per annum, an 3 pays the contributions of the workmen while they are serving in the army or navy. The other expenses are borne in equal shares by the insured and their employers, and are raised by current contributions. Usually the payment is made by the employer, who purchases and affixes a certain number of stamps, resembling postage stamps, to the card of the insured. The system is not intended as a substitute for the Poor Law, as it is inadequate to support the recipient. The average pension is about 160 marks a year (£7 10s), but the difficulty is that the most needy, who can save the least, ultimately recpive the least. It does not relieve those who, through unemployiAent, have been unable to keep up their payments, nor does it resifh married women. "Generally speaking (recently remarked a writer in an English paper) socialinsurance legislation has become a national asset, which no party and no class would really lose, but which many of us are striving to modify, to unify, to amend, and to extend.