NOT SUPERANNUATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23027, 3 May 1938, Page 10

NOT SUPERANNUATION

Mr. Savage and Mr. Nash will probably sigh with relief when on Wednesday they shut down on the hearing of evidence bearing on the social "security scheme. The queue of those providing their own super-

annuation has been an especially long one with a case difficult to ; answer. It is always difficult to | justify injustice, although the Prime | 3linister and the Minister of Finance | made a good attempt at brazening jit out rith the representatives of i the Public Service yesterday. Their | initial mistake, as the Counties' Association pointed out, has been to j speak of what is simply an extension j of the present pension system as if jit were superannuation. Had Mr. j Savage said frankly that all he proI posed was to increase pensions and : taxation to pay for them, he would | not have had all these aggrieved bodies on his hands. Instead he talked about a "universal scheme" and about "contributions" instead of taxes, calling the result superannuation. So far from the scheme being universal, a means test! severely limits its application. The' provident are penalised. And so far; from it being superannuation, the! counties point out that it violates ; the cardinal principle of superannua- j tion, that every contributor partici- j pates in the benefits. Usually, more-; over, the benefits are in proportion j to contributions. The means test j destroys these implications. Benefits j may or may not be covenanted or j paid for; they may be unc-ovenanted, ( partaking of the nature of charity; ! they will not accrue as of right but ■ only on proof of indigence. The gulf I dividing the pretence of superannua- j tion from the reality of Mr. Savage's j scheme proves so wide as to explain j the difficulty many provident organ- i isations and their members are ex- j periencing in crossing it. t