LOAN-GRANT PLAN: CARS FOR THOSE DISABLED IN WAR

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22817, 11 December 1948, Page 4

LOAN-GRANT PLAN: CARS FOR THOSE DISABLED IN WAR

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 11. Disabled ex-servicemen will be assisted to buy a car with special inter-est-free. non-repayable loans. Assistance will also be given where it is needed to fit extra mechanical controls in the cars so purchased. This was stated yesterday by the Minister of Rehabilitation, Mr. C. F. Skinner. The amount of loan available toward the purchase of a ear would be £2OO, said the Minister. It would be a secured interest-free loan, repayable only if the car was sold or otherwise disposed of within two years of the loan being made. At ,the end of the two years, if the ex-servicemen still owned the car, the loan would be converted into a free grant. These special loans would he available to ex-servicemen who had permanent disabilities assessed for pensions purposes at a minimum of 85 per cent of total disability, irrespective of the total war pension they might receive.

The loans could be used either to purchase suitable new or second-hand cars, or retrospectively to cover any one car purchased since disablement and still owned by an eligible applicant. In all cases an eligible ex-service-man would be entitled to only one grant for this type of assistance.

Ex-servicemen who were entitled to the special loan and who had previously had a rehabilitation business loan to purchase a car, would be able to convert their business loan into the new special advance to the extent of £2OO. It was not intended that the new provision should preclude additional assistance being given ns was occasionally done at present by other organisations such as the Now Zealand Patriotic Fund Board and the E.S.A. Eligibility for further assistance toward the fitting of extra mechanical controls would be the same as for the special purchase loan. The amount would be limited to the actual cost in voiced. In every case again an eligible ex-serviceman could lie assisted only once in this way. Authority to approve both the loan and the grant had been delegated to district, rehabilitation loans committees and an ex-serviceman in the first instance applied to his local rehabilitation office.

All the assistance possible had been offered by the Transport Department to ensure that ex-servicemen obtained proper mechanical controls where they were needed ,to enable them to handle their cars with absolute safety. The Minister added that a special license had been granted to import 18 suitable light cars from the United Kingdom, together with special fittings. The cars were now on order and would fco reserved for leg amputees with the necessary 85 per cent disability pension. The method of allocating the cars would be advised later.