NATIONAL SUPERANNUATE

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 May 1938, Page 7

NATIONAL SUPERANNUATE

CIVIL SERVICE EXEMPTION * APPEAL TO COMMITTEE ri’FR PBBSS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, May 2. Full preservation of the existing public service superannuation funds, including a continuance of compulsory contributions for present employees and future entrants to the Public Service and (2) provision for contributors to existing superannuation funds to be exempt from that portion of the proposed special tax of a shilling-in-the-pound which is actuarially assessed as required to provide the proposed additional pensions, were proposals put before the Parliamentary Committee on superannuation and national health, in a statement presented by Mr. F. W. Millar, honorary secretary of the Central Committee _ of the combined Public Service organisations. . x . Mr. Millar said his organisations represented eleven Public Service Associations with a total membership of 51,560. , , “Statements already made by individual members of the Government have been to the effect that the existing Public Service schemes will be safeguarded,” Mr. Millar’s statement says, “but in the absence of specific provisions, it is incumbent upon the Public Service organisations formally ot express their unanimous desire for preservation of their superannuation funds.” , The statement detailed the financial position of the funds, and the history of their growth. It concluded: “Public servants yield the forefront to no section of the community in their public spirit and willingness to shoulder their fair share of direct and indirect taxation. When, however, there is proposed a special tax for increased pensions, in which, except in extraordinary circumstances, Qie very compulsory nature of their inclusion in the State superannuation funds would debar them from participation, they consider that the. committee cannot but agree our claims for partial exemption from the proposed special tax are reasonable.” Mr. Nash asked if the Public Servants would have objected to an increase in the old age pensions made from the Consolidated Fund? Mr. Millar: That all depends. We have had to deal with the scheme as outlined. That question raises another aspect. Mr. Nash: You as a service, would not object to the Government providing for people in the community who can’t provide for themselves, and never will be able to? Mr. Millar: No. Mr. Nash: If the contribution made for payment of pensions to everybody, does not proportionately exceed the sum that is paid by the State to public servants, would the public servants object? Mr. Millar: I don’t know whether they would object. Public servants were given the inducement to join up and to stick to their jobs in order to get superannuation benefits. Mr. Nash: I don’t say that public servants have had a fair deal. I don’t think the superannuation scheme has been properly managed. ’ Mr. Millar, replying to other questions, said he did not think that public servants would object from the social point of view to assistance being given to those who were not able to care for themselves. Mr Savage asked Mr Millar if he would be surprised to know that he had received a communication from one substantial branch of the Public Service congratulating the Government on its proposal. I Mr Millar: I think the Public Ser-, vice as a whole would say the same thing. You made a statement, Sir, about the position of public servants. Mr Savage: Oh. yes, that statement is getting moss on it, but I did not say for one moment I would exempt anyone from taxation. I am not asking public servants to join this scheme but I would remind you that members of the public have been paying into various Public Service funds for years, and will have to go on doing so. The moment the Government decided to do something for the people, who had been paying for generations past, there seems to be an objection to it. Isn’t it a fact, the people paid some seven to nine millions into the various Public Service funds? Mr Millar said the State had 1 to pay large amounts, because of defects in the past. Mr Savage: You have received an assurance that the Government is going to face up to the position of the superannuation funds. Mr Millar: Yes, that is so.

NEW PROPOSAL A statement was presented to the Committee by the superannuated Public Servants’ Association, which asked leave to present evidence in support and explanation of its proposals. It proposed that every married superannuitant, whose present allowance was three pounds a week or less, and every unmarried superannuitant whose allowance was thirty shillings a week or loss, should be given the option of transferring to the new national scheme without any transfer from the present to the new fund of any contributions to the former. It also suggested that any superannuitant who made the transfer, should be deemed to have one pound a week of income “from other sources,” . and that if his present allowance is a pound a week or less (or thirty shillings or less) he should on his transfer to the new scheme still receive one pound a week from the present superannuation fund as “income from other sources.” The statement contends that the adoption of these proposals would cover quite a large proportion of the hardships borne by men, who under the Finance Act 1931, were compulsorily retired. It also suggests that the widows of former superannuitants should come under the same benefits as those which would be approved under the above proposals. The final suggestion is that taxpayers, over the age of sixty, and superannuitants irrespective of age, should under the new scheme be required to pay out of their “personal income” only such portion if any,, of the new tax of a shilling in the pound as the State deemed be allocated to the needs of the health insurance scheme as apart from the national superannuation scheme.