REDUCED PENSIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21136, 19 March 1932, Page 14

REDUCED PENSIONS.

Si r , —ln the drastic cut on all public expenses, one reads with regret that oldage pensioners and widows are to be so heavily mulcted, but one's regret turns to burning indignation when it is proposed that the sum allowed to be earned by these unfortunates is to be reduced also. The pension is barely enough to keep body and soul together as it is, even with the addition of the £1 per week permitted to be earned in the past (in the case of the old-age pensioners frequently beyond the power to earn), and now this also is to bo reduced to 15s per week If the commission who so glibly curtailed the scanty pension permitted to our unfortunate citizens could sit for an hour in the corridor at the pensions office -as have done—and see the heartbreaking cases of old age, poverty and infirmitj more often than not the pensioners are respectable and deserving—surely they would hesitate before further reducing the meagre pittance a benevolent Govern - ment allows. A pensioner should be encouraged to earn as much as possible, instead of being ground down to a bare crust. Unfortunately, most pensioners are beyond earning anything. Not A Pensioner.