SERIOUS POSITION

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 256, 12 October 1932, Page 8

SERIOUS POSITION

TEACHERS’ SUPERANNUATION

STATE LIABILITY INCBEASEI ACTUARY’S RECOMMENDATIONS (By Telegraph—Special to “Tribune.”) Wellington, Oct. 11. Attention is drawn to the serious position of the teachers’ superannuation fund by the Government Actuary (Mr G. Gostello) in his tricnnal report on the fund, presented to Parliament today. The State liability towards the fund is shown at £5,559,202, which represents an increase of £911,546 in three years. The increase is stated to be mainly due to the accumulations at interest of that part of the State’s liability which v unprovided for and to the number of retirements of comparatively young teachers with long service being in excess of the valuation assumptions. The number of pensioners on the fund at January 1, 1930, was 1231. Pensions drawn amounted to £218,109 annually, exclusive of 300 amounting tn £8893 actually granted to widows and children of Secepscd members. The number of contributors was 9614, with aggregate salaries amounting to £2,613,078, and they paid contributions amounting to £140,844 annually. The amount of Government subsidy Was £204,000, which, compared .with the amount reported necessary in the last actuarial report, showed a shortage of £315,000, apart from the loss of interest. “While it is not my function to comment on policy matters, I feel that 1 would be lacking in my responsibility if I did not enunciate the general principle that no additional finaucial strain should be imposed on the teachers’ superannuation fund by policy measures of the Government,” concludes Mt Gostello. “I may mention that in the South African Public Service superannuation scheme, if an officer is forced to retire on a pension due to a retrenchment scheme or other policy measure nil pension payments up to the date of his attaining the normal pension age are paid out of public revenue and not out of tbo superannuation fund. “It is scarcely possible under the present financial conditions for the Consolidated Fund to assume any such responsibility, and tho only sound alternative in the event of any departure from what might be termed the superannuation fund’s fundamental obligations to contributors is to prevent any increase in its liabilities by granting pensions that are actuarial equivalents of pensions that would normally be received at the statutary retiring ages, having duo regard to the contributions payable in the meantime.