BENEFIT PAYMENTS TO HOSPITAL PATIENTS

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4591, 12 November 1942, Page 2

BENEFIT PAYMENTS TO HOSPITAL PATIENTS

To the Editor

Sir. —Please advise me whether public hospitals are supposed to be free to patients who are drawing Social Security pensions. Here are the experiences of three pensioners who have been in the same public hopsital recently.— The first one, who was not on a full pension, was treated free. The second one, ivho was on a full pension, had his pension taken from him while the third also had his pension taken but it ivas refunded when he wrote to the Social Security Department about it. If the hospitals are free to people who are not in need of a pension, surely they should be free to everyone. I am . etc.,

INTERESTED.

[ln accordance with the provisions of Section GO of the Social Security Act, no person is entitled to receive more than one benefit, and therefore no benefit is, of right, payable under the Act in respect of any period during w r hich the beneficiary is an inmate of any Public Institution and in receipt of a hospital benefit. The Commission, however, having regard to the circumstances of the case, has power to pay the whole or such part as it thinks fit. There is no question of any benefit being withheld entirely while a beneficiary is in hospital, but it is sometimes necessary to return the advice to Wellington for adjustment in the case of single or widowed beneficiaries. Married age beneficiaries’ payments arc continued at the full rates, and single and widowed beneficiaries arc reduced to £l/16/6 per month w'hile they are in hospital, with the exception that no reduction is made in respect to the months of admission and discharge, and the Commission may give special consideration to any cases of hardship. It may be added that the beneficiaries, in addition to treatment, receive free board and lodgings while in hospital at the expense of the Government, and that in many cases ordinary civilians' wages cease while they are in hospital, and treatment and keep are provided under the Social Security Act at the Government’s expense. —Ed. L.W.M.]