SECURITY ANOMALIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 50, 27 August 1938, Page 8

SECURITY ANOMALIES

Under the terms of the Social Security Bill provision is made for a benefit of £3 a week for a man and his wife on reaching the age of sixty years, and in addition the couple may have between them an income from other sources of £52 a year before the amount of the benefit is reduced. On the face "of it, this would appear to mean that any married couple with an income of £52 a year would receive a total weekly income of £4, but a close scrutiny of the Bill now before Parliament shows that this is not necessarily so. Much depends on the source of the income. The pensioner may obtain his £52 from a superannuation fund without deduc-tion,-but if he receives it from investments he may suffer a deduction on account of accumulated capital. For instance, in order to secure an income of £52 from interest on Post Office Savings Bank deposits at three per cent, it would be necessary to have capital in the bank amounting to approximately £1700. (It would really be more as three per cent, is paid only on accounts up to £500). The Bill provides for thfLjexemption of £1000 of this sum (£7OO for the husband and £500 for the wife), the balance to be regarded as the capital value of the accumulated property. Another section of the Bill lays it down that the benefit is to be reduced, in every case, by £1 for every £10 of the net capital of the accumulated property of the applicant, and of his wife or her husband, as the case may be. It will be seen, then, that a married couple whose joint capital invested in the savings bank is sufficient toi return them an annual income of £52 j will have their joint pension reduced j by about £70. This is a point that was not made clear in the official explanation of the Bill, but it is a point of some concern to those who will be affected. The additional income allowed over and above the age benefit also includes earnings up to £1 a week. At first glance this may appear to be a reasonable provision, but in actual practice it may not have very much real value. Under the industrial legislation at present operating in New Zealand, how many people of sixty years and over (or of any age over twenty-one, for that matter) can obtain employment at a remuneration of £1 a week and less? No doubt there are many people who, on reaching the age of sixty years, feel that, while full-time employment may be beyond their powers or their desires, they would-be happy to perform light and congenial duties for a small remuneration. But existing legislation stipulates that in any industry covered by an award, and there are few industries not so covered, the basic wage must be paid, unless an under-rate permit is obtained. Underrate permits are not popular with unions (whose consent must be obtained) and so practically all avenues of light employment are closed to those elderly people who might desire to supplement their social security benefit payment. Such people, if they have no other income sources, will be forced to be satisfied with the pension provided from the Social Security Fund, and in a number of cases that may prove a! real hardship, especially when they feel that they are still capable of | taking a useful if limited part in thej work of the country. '