OLD AGE PENSIONS

Evening Star, Issue 20511, 16 June 1930, Page 7

OLD AGE PENSIONS

*- HEW YORK STATE SCHEME AGE LIMIT OF SEVENTY YEARS. The State of New York has adopted the old age pension. The Bill, passed recently, adopts the Canadian age limit of seventy veers, which makes the pension payable later than in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. The new law took effect from May- 1, but pensions will not be paid till January next. A unique feature of the_ new law is that it does not fix a maximum or minimum amount for relief, which is to be determined wholly by the needs and circumstances of each applicant. The relief is to be administered in the first instance by public welfare districts throughout the State out of county, and in some instances city, funds, where cities decide to give aid to the eligible aged within their own boundaries. Half of the cost, however, will bo defrayed by the State, and the State Department of Public Works will exercise supervisory powers and form a tribunal to which appeals may be made in instances w-here differences arise between the beneficiary and the local welfare officials over the amount _of relief granted. The old age security law m a declaratory clause with which it opens makes it clear that the relief administered is not to be regarded as a dole nor as charity in any form. AGE AND RESIDENCE. To be eligible for old age relief under the new law a person must have attained the age of seventy years, be .unable to support himself, either wholly or in part, and have no _ children or other persons to support him or be responsible under the present law for his support. He must be a citizen of tho United States, and must have been a resident of. the State of New York for at least ten years immediately preceding his application for old age relief. The Canadian law requires twenty years’ residence, of which the last five must be in the province which pays it; the provinces bear half the cost with, the dominion, except in tho case of Ontario, which requires the municipalities to bear a third of the cost. The pensioner must have been an inhabitant of the Public Works welfare district within wliich his application is made for at least one year immediately ' preceding the date of the application. The applicant must at the time relief is granted not be an inmate of any public or private home for the aged or any public or private, custodial, correctional, or curative institution, except in instances where an applicant is receiving temporary medical or surgical care in a hospital. An inmate o: an institution of the character described, however, may make an application for relief, but under the terms of the new law no relief can be granted until he bus ceased to be an inmate. THE QUESTION OF PROPERTY. An applicant, to become edgiblc, must show that he has not made a voluntar. assignment or transfer of property, so as to quality for old ago relief. It must also be shown that he is not, because of his physical or mental condition, in need of continued institutional care. -< . , In its main principles the new law follows the trend of British legislation, except t tit regards old age rehei as not being available until the age or seventy. Canada hesitated at the cost of paving the pension at sixty-five . it is evident the United States has same hesitancy. The New York lav is the most expensive among the States that have adopted old age penSl< The New Zealand law is yet the most generously conceived old age pension iaw in the world. ■ •