SOCIAL INSURANCE

Grey River Argus, 25 February 1941, Page 3

SOCIAL INSURANCE

GERMAN SCHEME DETERIORATES. [British Official Wireless! RUGBY, February 23. Information has been received in Labour circles here showing a' deteriorating effect of the Nazi scheme on social insurance, which once was the legitimate pride of the German Government. After bankruptcy in these services caused by war, the average invalidity pension in 1925 amounted to less than 25 marks. By the middle of 1930 trade union pressure raised the standard to 36.40 marks. In the first quarter of 1931 it rose to 47.23. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they fixed standard invalidity pensions at between forty and forty-nine per cent, lower than the rate in 1931. Workers who had been paying contributions in the lowest wage class for twenty years received a pension of 12.60 marks. The Nazis also imposed their own conditions. The social insurance pension was forfeited bv persons acting in a manner hostile to the State after 31/1/33. This includes not only a refusal to give the Hitler salute, but also refusal to pay a contribution to the Nazi organisation. Even persons under “protective arrest” are liable to such forfeiture. The dependants may be allowed part pension as an act of charity if considered politically more .reliable than the bread winner.