Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 1924. A REASONABLE SYSTEM WANTED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 1040, 12 June 1924, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 1924. A REASONABLE SYSTEM WANTED.

The existing free pensions scheme has its uses and its abuses. So far as Old Age and Widows' pensions are concerned, the "Standard" is strongly of the opinion that the Jaw requires amendment, on rational lines which will relieve the taxpayers of a good deal of the burden which the joint schemes placo upon them. The number of pensioners is continually increasing. From 18,050 pensioners on the Old Age Pensions list, in 1914, the number has risen to 21,181 in 1923, and the amount paid to such pensioners has increased from £410,776 to £755,324. The Widows' Pension scheme only came into force in 1912, and during the first year of its operation the number of pensioners was limited to 568; the actual payments made during the year amounting to £3681. By 1923 the number of widow pensioners, apart from "Epidemic Widows," had increased to 3411, the actual payments made during the year totalling £IBB,021. Tho actual payments in respect of Old Age and Widows' pensions during the financial year ended 31st March, 1923, thus amounted to £943,345, and these, it has to be remembered, are made on an entirely free basis. The law has been amended on more than one occasion since tho Reform Government came into office, and, on the whole, is liberal enough to satisfy most people. Its administration, however, appears to be still somewhat unsatisfactory, the Widows' Pension scheme especially being capable of improvement. While we are strongly of the opinion that it is necessary the Government should introduce a universal contributory pensions system, and that any further amendments of the law should be made in that direction, we cannot but think that applicants for the Widows' Pension are subjected to altogether unnecessary inquisitorial examinations, and that the pittance meted out to the successful applicants is inadequate, seeing that it is subject to reduction, should the widow with one child be earning more than 15% per week for their joint maintenance. When the Epidemic Pensions were introduced in 1918, as the result of the great wave of feeling which swept over the country for the bereaved widows and orphans of the victims of that black disaster, more liberal provision was made for "Epidemic Widows" and their children, the result being that, against an average pension payable to widows under the Widows' Pension scheme of £57 7s per annum for the year ending March 31st, ) 1923, the Epidemic Pensions averaged £76. Either the one is too little or.j the other too much. A widow with one child dependent upon her is only entitled to receive a maximum of £39 per annum, but cases undoubtedly arise, and are probably to bo found

even in this district, where widows, in delicate health, find it almost impossible to eke out the means of subsistence on the pension of £39 per annum, even if they are able to earn the 15s a week beyond which an unsympathetic department, or Government (we are not actually sure where the blame should be apportioned), does not permit it to go without suffering a reduction in the ainoimt of pension payable. If a widow's circumstances are such that she needs assistance, and the Magistrate, who alone can allow her the right to receive such pension, is, satisfied she should receive it. surely it should not be necessary to ask the widow, in filing her application, to fill in such items as the "amount received in free board and lodgings" for the previous twelve months. If the Minister controlling the Pensions Department would look into the forms which applicants both for the Old Age and the Widows' Pensions have to fill in, we feel sure lie would recognise the necessity for abating, in some degree, the inquisitorial processes which the applicants have to undergo. THE CONTRIBUTORY SYSTEM NEEDED. No contributory system which might be under consideration should be allowed to interfere with the right of existing pensioners to the pensions they are already receiving, but both here and in Australia, feeling is growing stronger and stronger that a compulsory contributory system of universal pensions should take the place of the present system, and that that system should cover sickness, invalidity, unemployment and old age. Such a system would, of course, revolutionise the existing procedure. It would help to bring about habits of thrift and self-respect, and would develop a sturdier feeling in the mind of the general community, by asserting the right of the individual to receive, by virtue of his contributions to the general fund, the attention nt present given to him, when lie is in necessitious circumstances, by the Government and the Hospital and Charitable Aid Boards, it is coming to bo more generally recognised that, magnificent as our hospital system is, the charges that arc made indiscriminately upon those who are unfortunate enough to need the medical care and nursing which the hospitals afford, press most heavi'v on people with limited incomes. The way in which, in some cases and in some districts, patients are dunned for their hospital tees, sometimes when they are still too poorly equipped to fight their own battles outside, borders on the unreasonable. It cannot be denied that a great many people who are well able to pay the hospital maintenance charges have sought, and possibly still seek, to evade their just obligations in that respect; but, on the other hand, there is a class of people, mostly respectable, patient and enduring, who stint and half starve themselves, in order to get rid of a liability of which they might very well be relieved, and from which a universal schome of contributions into a special fund set apart for that purpose, into which weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual payments might be made, would relieve them. The time is ripe for considering the whole question of pensions- and also for the consideration of means for relieving that section of the people living on the borderland of poverty, from those forebodings of the future which are undoubtedly continually present in the minds of those who, metaphorically speaking, live "from hand to mouth," and are just able to maintain themselves in a fair position of decency and comfort, while the j sun shines upon them, and the.il' health ! remains good and their employment unbroken. In Australia, a Royal Commission is now taking evidence and making exhaustive enquiries into tho Pensions Schemes, with the view to advising Parliament of the expediency of instituting compulsory insurance in respect of all the matters to which we have referred, and of devising a scheme whereby the taxpayer will be relieved of the greater portion of tna burden lie now carries', as the result of the enormoush' increased pensions payable by both the Commonwealth and State Governments amounting, with the Commonwealth War Pensions, to over twelve and a-half millions per annum, the ordinary pensions approximating five and "a-half millions of that sum. There can, of course, be no interference with the War Pensions scheme, the obligations in respect of which must be sacredly observed, but it should be. possible to j establish a National Insurance Fund | into which contributions would bo pay- . able at stated intervals by every mem- I ber of the community in "a position to j make such payments", from which tho! necessary disbursements could be made, j in respect of the assistance needed bv ' those who fall upon evil davs, not a"s ! the result of their own evil' practices, ! but through misfortune and old age. j