MORE PENSIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22402, 24 April 1936, Page 14

MORE PENSIONS

ACTION THIS SESSION BILL NOT YET DRAFTED MANY FACTORS TO CONSIDER [BY TELEGRAPH —SPECIAL REPORTER] WELLINGTON. Thursday A definite indication that he intended to introduce a Pensions Bill this session was given by the Minister of Pensions, Hon. W. E. Parry, in an interview to-day. The bill is now in course of preparation, but it is fairlv certain that it will represent only an instalment of the pensions legislation which the Government has in view. The Minister said that until the financial position of the countrv was clearly ascertained it would not be possible to decide precisely „on the terms of the bill. It was the aim of the Government to make the pensions system as nearly uniform as possible and it was probable that the programme of pensions legislation would extend over three years. Until the financial nosition was announced in the ordinary way it would not be possible to say just how much would be available for the improvement in pensions to be effected under the bill which was at present being prepared. "It has often been said," Mr. Parry added, "that Budgets have been balanced at the expense of some of the most pressing social problems of the day, but it is not our intention to neglect the needy section of the community. There is an urgent necessity, for instance, for increased accommodation in our mental hospitals, and wo have 17,000 invalids for whom some provision must be made before existing pensions are increased. "It is only right to deal first with those cases where persons in need of assistance receive no State help at all. Thus the position to-day Is that tho Government has a great many factors to consider in framing the proposal* to bo included in its first pensions bill."