SOCIAL SECURITY BILL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23123, 23 August 1938, Page 13

SOCIAL SECURITY BILL

Sir, —I will be grateful for space to state my case, as I feel sure that there are many parallel cases. I pay £6 per year into a lodge which gives me free doctor and hospital as well as £1 per week while T am ill. Had T joined at the age of 16 the annual subscription would have been much less. Assuming that I earn, on an average, £5 per week, I will have to pa.v £27 a year into the Government health and superannuation scheme (Is in the pound out of wages and Is out of the Consolidated Fund, plus £1 registration fee). If 1 paid £6 per year into the lodge and the remaining £2l per year into an insurance policy from the age of 16 to 65 (49 years) 1 would have medical service and a much better nest-egg to sit back on in my old age than the Government can offer me, the reason oeing that the Government will require numerous highly paid civil servants to put their scheme into effect, whereas the jobs of secretary and treasurer, etc., of the lodge are passed around and no person receives any money for his or her services. As the average life of a person, according to actuaries, is about 65, it looks as if I am going to get little or nothing back for the money I will have to pay to the Government.

Young Taxpayer