MEMBERS’ QUESTIONS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 167, 14 June 1940, Page 2

MEMBERS’ QUESTIONS.

SOCIAL SECURITY ACT. .. “Section 67 of the Social Security Act provides that every benefit shall commence on the first / day of the month in which the application is received by the commission or. on the date on which the applicant becomes qualified, whichever is the later,” said the Minister of Social! Security (Hon. W. E. Parry) when replying to an urgent question by Mr W. J. Broadfoot I (Opposition, Waitomo). “Where a person is entitled to national superannuation and did not' apply promptly, the department is deducting a proportion of the quarterly payment to cover the period from April 1 to the actual date of application,” Mr Broadfoot said. “Is this being done with the knowledge of the Government?” Mr Parry said if an application for universal superannuation was not lodged till 6ome time in May the benefit would commence from May 1. The commission had no authority to back date any application beyond that. RESTAURANT LABOUR. An amendment to the law to enable female labour to be employed in restaurants- up to 11.30 p.m. by remov-

ing the present restriction on their employment.after 10.30 p.m._is sough in a petition presented on behalf of b - Carr, of Wellington, and 65 others. Petitioners are owners of restaurants, milk bars, refreshment-rooms, cafeterias, fish and grill rooms and oyster saloons in all parts of the Dominion. They ask that the law be amended at least for the period of the war, thereby relieving them of the necessity tor employing casual labour. Young men, they say, are being employed casually up to 11.30 p.m., but many of them have already left or will be leaving this employment to take up military duties.