SUPERANNUATION FUND

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 20 October 1932, Page 7

SUPERANNUATION FUND

STATEMENT BY A.S.R.S. ‘GROSSLY MISLEADING REPORT’ BLAME LAID OX (GOVERNMENT. (By l'elegrapn—Press Association.; > WELLINGTON, Oct. 20. i A statement in regard to the super- . animation fund, issued on behalf of 1 the A.S.K.S. b.v the president and the , general secretary, isays the fund is in no way responsible for the depression or the adverse budgetary l position of the country, and should not’ be brought under survey by the National Expenditure Commission. The economic and financial position , of the country had been improved by the fund taking over liabilities for compensations and old age and widows’ pensions, which otherwise would have been a liability on the State, it is declared. Moreover, had the fund been subsidised by the Government as was originally intended, the accumulated funds would have been invested mainly in Government and approved freehold security, which would have helped to stabilise the finance of primary industries. The theoretical actuarial deficit was grossly misleading and, in their opinion, the fund, apart from the fact that it was not founded on an actuarial basis., is in a no more perilous plight than any of the hanks and many other institutions, and disclosure of such an exaggerated deficit in an atmosphere of panic creates a wrong psychology concerning the fund and its contributors. The State had come in as a guarantor of any possible deficiency and, by I substituting the guarantee for a cash contribution, had accumulated a debt for itself and loaded on to posterity a financial burden which altogether distorted the position regarding the Government’s responsibility to the fund. The State, as the employer, ■having failed to make proper contributions to the fund from the inception, should now provide not only for the short payments of the past, but also the interest thereon, or. at least, should increase the subsidy to make the income equal the expenditure for five years, when the peak lead period of back service and early. retirements would be over.