PENSION SCHEME.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 151, 27 May 1938, Page 6

PENSION SCHEME.

ASPECTS' DISCUSSED. GOVERNMENT CONSIDERATION. (By Telegraph.—Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, May 27. Although discussions at the caucus gatherings are completely secret and the only information officially available comes from the Prime Minister, it has become known that this week’s gathering of Parliamentary members of the Labour Party has had to give anxious consideration to the possibility of modifying the national health and. superannuation scheme as it was originally announced.. Difficulties foreseen by some critics within the party centre around the superannuation proposals, and the associated means test. The pension is not to be paid to every contributor reaching the age of 60 if that person’s income exceeds £1 a week. The pension, as in the case of old age pensions, is to be reduced by £1 per annum for every £1 of annual income in excess of the £62 • allowed, while every £lO of the net accumulated capital operates to reduce the annual pension by £l. However, the value of the superannuitant’s home will be excluded from this computation. It has been impossible to discover whether the Government has put to the caucus any definite method of adjusting the position of those already paying regular, contributions on their wages for superannuation purposes. What appears to be the most dis-' turbing in the situation ip the realisation that the average , youthful voter naturally believes that after a lifetime of work he will have achieved a competence and will, therefore, have, been contributing to the scheme with no prospect of superannuation benefit. It is believed that pressure was put on Cabinet to face up to this problem, which tends to make the plan unac- «. c#ptable to the younger class in the community, but that it was found difficult to meet the position owing to the insuperable handicap of finance. , The point had been anticipated bv the British actuary (Mr G. H. Maawho advised the Government on the whole scheme. Mr Maddex reported that supera.rinuation for men and women at the age of 60, as proposed with a means test, would send the expenditure up from the present old age pension cost of £3,900,000 to £6,200,000, but that if a pension of 30s weekly was made universal at the age of 60 the additional cost would be £8,300,000.