PENSIONS SYSTEM

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 104, 30 October 1923, Page 9

PENSIONS SYSTEM

REMOVAL OF ANOMALIES

A RECESS INQUIRY CONTRIBUTORY SYSTEM PROPOSED. It was recently reported from Melbourne that a Royal Commission on national insurance had commenced its sittings to consider proposals which will embrace, besides the old age and unemployment questions, the giving of assistance in times of casual sickness and accident, and of maternity, pre-natal and post-natal.

The fact that th e Commonwealth Government is attempting to find some solution of the question of pensions as of considerable interest to New Zealand, in view of the statements made in the House of Representatives last session by the Minister of Pensions (the Hon. G. J. Anderson) that he intended to go into the whole matter of pensions in the recess, with a view of bringing down suggestions for the removal of anomalies. ON A PARITY. At the present tjme there are about 53.000 pensioner* in the Dominion receiving aid age, widows', miners, Maori Wax, epidemic, and war pensions. There are over 26,000 Great War pensioner*, and more than 20,000 old age pension recipients. Of the 53,000 pensioners, there aro over 1800 who are in receipt of more than one class of pension, and this was a point to which attention was devoted by the Minister, who said that when the Jaw was amended and consolidated all these different pensions, with the exception of the military pensions, should he put under one name, so that when a person drew a civil pension that person should know pretty well whathe or she was going to receive. In the Minister's opinion, the pensions should be_ something on a parity. Under the epidemic pension system a widow received 10s 6d far each child, under the war pensions ahe received 10s, and under the widows' pension 7s 6d. When the law was amended these must be put on one plane, because it was oWious tha,t the one child was as difficult to bring up as the other.

Pensions as a whole are costing the Dominion somewhere about £2,459,000 per annum, but as the Minuter more than once stated to the House, the system is_ full of anomalies. One singular thing is that, though it is possible for, say, an old age pensioner to be receiving some other class of pension as well, there is no provision for paying a Maori War pensioner the old age pension. This is resulting in considerable hardship to some of the veterans, who are forced to eke out an existence on an amount of about £4 per month, and find the task" a very difficult one to achieve. Of course, the same remarks would apply to fnbse persons who have nothing but the old age pension of 15s per week to come and go on. There are only about 600 Maori War pensioners in the Dominion, but the most of them are well past the age of three score years and ten, and whether it will be possible either to increase their present pensions, or enable these to be supplemented by. a grant ol the old age pension in ■heeesaitbW'cafies' is a matter which may receive some consideration. , . . " .. ■

Although Australia is getting up a Koyal Commission on the pension* question, the New Zealand Government may not follow that courie. Speaking in tha Houae of Representatives on the no-conft-d«nce debate on 28th June, tin Minister of Pensions »ugge«ted that before the pensions scheme wag touched »t all a Committee or a Commission should b» set uprto co into the whole question and bring Sown a schema that would settle the matter for a good many years, tiie National Provjdent Fund report, he stated that the solution of the whole pensions system and the difficulties surrounding it was dependent upon a co n . tnbutory b<wis. If a Ech % me evolved it must cover social and oaf-of-work insurance and everything connected with it. He said that he would deal with this question in the same manner as he had approached the question of apprenticeship, the inquiry into which sut,ject had shown that if a Minister could obtain the assistance of men who were enthusiastic about the matter more good could be done than by setting up ■ Royal Commission, because the Ministermust necessarily be responsible for any scheme that might be evolved. Whatever happened, a report would be pre-

" A PENSIONS TAX.' d P u. rinf, tho .co.urse °* no-confidence debate, the Minuter said he knew a con"™V P, ensl°n * apply to all was impracticable at present, but he thought it would eventually be forced upon the country, no matter what party happened to be in power—probably by way of a pensions tax. If a universal pension on j the basis he suggested were adopted the sick and afflicted and those who were | out of work could be assisted. This system would do away to a large extent with charitable aid. He did riot think however that at present, at all events, it would be wise to exact by taxation sufficient money to meet these requirements. Among the anomalies he mentioned was that in some cases war, pensions and old age pensions might be enjoyed Dy the same pensioner, while In other cases they could not. While the anomalies would have to be rectified it would be necessary to gee that no injustice was done. He favoured the idea of a direct tax for a definite object, and for many years had held the opinion that a universal contributory pension would solve the problem In reply to Mr. WE. Parry (Auckland Central), Mr. Anderson stated that it was not proposed to amend the Pensions Act to increase the old age pension of 15b to at least 255, and on 17th July he reiterated that he would do his best in the recess to overcome a. number of anomalies and to see whether the ad- | ministration of the pensions system could i not be got on to a better footing He was not going to make any promise however to increase .ths pension rates because he did not think that was practicable under present conditions. The Minister mentioned the need for adjusting the rates, saying that the Government could not increase the-lowest payment to. the highestk. To suggest an increase in the old age pension rate was simply wasting time. I ON WHAT LINES? It has not been stated on what lines the Minister will pursue his inquiry into the subject of pensions revision, but as ha has expressed himself in favour of the contributory idea, it is possible that he may propound something in the way of extension of the National Provident Fund system, the basis of which is framed on individual contributions whioh vary in accordance with the amount which the contributor desires to draw weekly on attaining the age of 60. If a special tax were levied it would have to be paid by all who were earning, without any limitation of income, but it might be necessary to graduate the tax according to earning power. . The question u'utt tin in resjpwt to

the tax on single and married women. Would single women have to pay a tax, while husbands contributed on behalf of themselves and their wives, or would bachelors and spinsters have to pay an amount equal to the averages contribution of married men? Even if the scheme were made compulsory, the tax would have to be made sufficiently high to make the scheme actuarially sound. Would it apply to the Civil Service, and those municipal and private enterprises which have superannuation schemes of their own? These are just a few of the questions which come to mind,, and which go to show that the whole subject is full of difficulties, the solution of which cannot be achieved at one stroke of the legislative pen.