PENSIONS COST

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 August 1936, Page 5

PENSIONS COST

DEPT’S ANNUAL REPORT.

[PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

WELLINGTON, August 11

An increase of more than £300,000 in the total pensions payments for the year ended March 31, 1936, is revealed in the thirty-eighth annual report of the Pensions Department, which was tabled in the House of Representatives to-day by the Minister for Pensions (Hon, W. E. Parry). The total payments for 1934-35 amounted to £3,338,354, compared with £3,659,664 for 1935-36. The increases were greatest in war. old-age, and widows’ pensions: the amount paid out in family allowances decreased slightly. Payments for war and other pensions on behalf of other Governments amounted to £223,346.

War pensions payments, which have been made in the aggregate up to March 31, 1936, total £24,827,219. The annual liability covering all war pensions as at March 31 amounted to £1,384,340, and the annual value of economic pensions at that date was £189,884. The medical treatment of war pensioners during 1935-36 cost £70,995.

The total annual payment of all family allowances in force at the close of the year was £144,856. The cost of the administration of the department for the year was £71,346. The annual liability for old-age pensions was £1,828,150 as at March 31, of widows’ pensions £321,605, Maori War pensions £22,107, miners’ pensions £73,331, blind pensions £23,961, and epidemic pensions £5Ol.