WORK OF CLAIMS BOARD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16259, 19 June 1916, Page 7

WORK OF CLAIMS BOARD.

REVIEW OP ALLOWANCES.

PENSIONS AND GRANTS,

An important feature of the work which is being done by the.Claims Board of the Patriotic Association in the periodical review of cases in which assistance has been granted to returned soldiers or to the dependants of soldiers. A special meeting of the board was held on Friday for this purpose, and no fewer than 27 cases were considered.

Discussing this aspect of the board's work on Saturday,. Mr. V. J. Lamer, the chairman, stated that the cases of soldiers required review occasionally, as changes in their circumstances enabled them to

depend to a less extent upon the patriotic funds. In the majority of cases before the board on Friday, the fund had been the only source of assistance, as the men had not received their pensions. Two cases were considered in which the application for a pension had been declined, and In one of these the board had decided to continue an allowance.

There had been some difficulty In persnad'ng returned men to forward applications for pensions, and in a few in■tancos, where the hoard was satisfied that its advice had been unreasonably ]gncied» it had cancelled Its allowance. The whole policy of the board was to encourage the men who came before it to reassert their independence, and the number of cases in which, men had informed the board that they no longer required assistance showed that such men had no desire to take advantage of the fund, after they had sufficiently recovered to earn their own livelihood.

Referring to the cases of women who come before the board, Mr. Lamer said that almost without exception, the board had maintained its allowance without redaction. When the payments of the State pension began, the board granted supplementary allowance to bring the pension up to the original amount.