PENSIONS RATES

Evening Star, Issue 21091, 2 May 1932, Page 5

PENSIONS RATES

EFFECT Of REDUCTIONS OLD AND NEW SCALE Tho reductions in pensions as proposed in the National Expenditure Adjustment Bill and passed in committee by the House of Representatives, although following generally the broad principles laid down by the National Expenditure Commission, do not represent as drastic a cut as the commission recommended (says the ‘Dominion’). In tho case of old age, widows’, and war 'pensions higher rates than those recommended by the commission have been fixed, unmarried miners will receive the full cut recommended, while married miners with or without children will not receive the full cut. In tho following table a comparison is' made between tho weekly rates of pensions as formerly paid, the reduced rates recommended by tho commission, and tho rates actually adopted by Parliament :

FAMILY ALLOWANCES. Family allowances, which the commission recommended should be abolished, are retained under the Bill, the rate being 2s a week for each child in excess of two. The allowance, however, will be paid only where the average weekly income of the family is £3 ss, plus 2s for each child in excess of two, instead of £3 12s, plus 2s for each child in excess of two, as formerly. In addition to the reduction in old age pensions, as set out in the above table, the Bill also puts into effect the commission’s recommendation that the amount of income exemption should bo reduced from £52 to £39 a year. This means that instead of the pension being diminished pound for every complete pound of income in excess of £52 a year, it will be proportionately reduced pound for pound when the income is in excess of £39. Widows’ pensions are also subject to qualifications. The Pensions Act, 1926, provided that a widow with one child could only receive 10s if she was in receipt of an income of £2 a week or more. The income restriction has now been reduced to £1 14s, and a 9s allowance for the child. In no case could income and pension together exceed £5 10s; the figure is now reduced to £4 17s. The pension of the widow of a. miner who dies from miner’s phthisis, instead of being payable during the entire period of her widowhood, will now cease two years after her husband’s death, being then replaced by an ordinary widow’s pension. INCREASES SINCE 1898. Old age pensions have grown from £lB a year in 1898, when the first Pensions Act was passed, to £45 10s a year. The original £lB a year was increased in 1905 to £26 and in 1917 to £39. The Pensions Amendment Act, 1924, provided an additional 2s 6d a week in cases whore the pensioner was without property and had no income other than his pension. In 1925 this additional sum was extended to all pensioners, making the general rate £45 10s.

In Great Britain old ago pensions are granted at the rate of 10s a week at the age of seventy. In Australia the former New Zealand rate applies—namely, 17s Cd a week at the age of sixty-five, except that in New Zealand the age of eligibility for women is reduced to sixty.

Widows’ pensions were first introduced in 1911, when a widow with one child was granted 4s 5d a week, with an additional 2s 4d for each additional child. In no case could the pension exceed 11s 6d a week Miners totally incapaciated for woik through the disease known as mimr’s phthisis first received pensions in 1915, when the rate was fixed at 20s in the case of a married man or widower with children and 15s in th« case of an unmarried man. '

1 o' c S3 r O •§ •2 8o 0> ■rf •n u Comm rccom per w . £ r? <u O Zi.cu 6. d. s. d. s. cl. Old acre 17 f 6 15 0 15 9 Widows — For one child ... 20 0 15 0 18 0 For each adclitional child ... 10 0 7 6 9 0 Maximum 80 0 60 0 72 0 Miners— Single Married 25 0 22 6 '22 6 35 0 30 0 31 6 Per child 10 ■o 7 6 9 0 Maximum 85 0 60 0 76 6 Widow 17 6 15 0 15 9 South African War 37 6 — 30 9 —War Pensions.— s. d. s. d. s. d. Soldiers’ economic pensions— _ Soldier 30 0 15 U ZL u Widow with one _ _ child v ... ... 10 0 5 0 a u Every other child 2 6 1 3 2 0 Widowed mother 20 0 10 0 16 0