BRITISH PENSIONS

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4802, 26 June 1939, Page 2

BRITISH PENSIONS

THE LABOUR PARTY’S PLAN. THE MAIN PROVISIONS. Suggested increases. The British Labour Party’s pensions plan—an important set of proposals for the improvement of widows’, orphans’, and old ape pensions—has been published by the National Coun-

cil of Labour, representing the national executive of the Labour Party,

the executive of the Parliamentary

Labour Party, and the general coun-

cil of the Trades Union Congress, says the Chicago Tribune. Its main proposals are:—

(1) State pensions at 65 to be increased from 10s to 111 a week for single persons and to 35s in the case of married couples, on condition of retirement from wage-earning employment, except such subsidiary employment as is permitted under the unemployment insurance Acts. (2) Persons over the age of 60 who have been unemployed for some time and who are certified by the unemployment assistance board as unlikely to regain employment owing to economic conditions, also to he given the increased pension.

(3) Wives to be given pensions as soon as husbands qualify, provided the former are over 55 years of age. (4) Allowances to orphan children

to be increased to 10s a week and to widows’ children to 7s 6d a week for the first child and to 5s for each subsequent child.

(5) Certain pre-pension Act widows under the age of 55, who at present lose their pensions after their children have left school, to continue to receive pensions, irrespective of age. (6) Compulsorily and voluntarily insured persons to be permitted to invest their savings in the purchase of additional units of pension or additional years of benefit before 05, or both.

The total additional cost of the improvements is estimated at about £85,00,000 a year over the next ten years. This would be met by increases in the contributions of the State, of employers and employees.

The proposals would apply to all

persons coming under the various pensions Acts (broadly manual workers and non-manual workers earning up to £4OO a year).

The report claims great social advantages for the pension plan. Primarily a retirement scheme, it would insure the re-employment of up to 300,000 younger persons in place of elderly persons who would retire on pension.

Additional reliefs totalling over £20,000,000 annually would be afforded by the scheme to the unemployment insurance fund and to public assistance authorities. The National Council of Labour has embarked on a further inquiry with a view to putting forward pension proposals for dealing with invalidity arising from sickness, accident, and other forms of disability.

Because a large sum of money would be needed to put a tunnel

through Mount Messenger in a reasonable time, the project was in abeyance at present, said Mr. F. W. Lindup, Public Works district engineer, in reply to a question at a meeting of the No. 7 District Highways Council at Stratford. Although it was realised it would not be advisable to spend very much on the Mount Messenger road at present because of the tunnel project, it was the intention of the Highways Board to make a sealed road 15 feet in width. If a tunnel were put through P would cut off 3% miles of roadway, Mr. Lindup said, and would eliminate 400 feet of climb. If it were made under Mount Messenger the tunnel would be 30 chains in length.