"A PRIVILEGED CLASS"

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 58, 10 March 1933, Page 8

"A PRIVILEGED CLASS"

£700 SUPERANNUITANTS

ILLUMINATING RETURN

The return of the amounts received by superannuitants receiving over £700 per annum which was laid, on the table of the Legislative Council this week was the subject of comment today by the Hon. C. J. Carrington, who had been responsible for the information being collected. "The Teturn shows that one head of a department who retired on a pension of nearly £2000 a year received back in less than twelve months the total amount he had contributed to the fund, namply, £1797, and up to the end of last month he had received in superannuation the princely sum of £15,331. Another amazing example is that of a man who paid in £853 and who has actually received to date £9817. Take another striking example: the total paid in was £348, and this privileged person has been handed out £3848 to date. Others taken from the return arc interesting. One paid in £723 and received so far £7203; another paid in £522 and received £5521. The totals for those receiving over £700 per year from the Railways Superannuation Fund show that twelve persons paid in collectively £9183 and received to date the sum of £70,151 between them. "The Public Service superannuation return is also astounding in regard to payments to the end of last month to annuitants receiving over £700 per year. Fifteen retired public servants paid into this fund a total sum. of £17,435 between them, for which they have received to date £80,506. Some of the payments from this fund are startling. . For instance, one man paid in £1217 and received to date £11,122. Another paid in £953 and las so far received £6389. In this fund only two annuitants receiving oyer £700 a year have paid in more than they have so far received. The totals show that of those receiving over £700 a year, 15 persons in all paid in before retirement a total sum of £17,435, and they have received to date the sum of- £82,000 between them.. The grand totals show that 27 annuitants paid in £26,600 and they have so far received £152,600. "Such preferential treatment should not be allowed during these desperate times ,'when most of the people in this Dominion arc called upon to make sacrifices by way of reduced incomes, taxation on wages, etc., in order to save the country from financial disaster," said Mr. Carrington. "Why are these gentlemen receiving preferential treatment by the exemption of these large pensions from the legislative and economic cuts, in wages, salaries, and incomes, as the case may be? They certainly pay some taxation, but they have not experienced any cuts in regard to their large superannuation payments. They appear to be in the position of a specially privileged class, and the time has arrived when this country cannot subscribe towards a specially privileged class."