SOLDIER PATIENTS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10561, 12 April 1920, Page 5

SOLDIER PATIENTS

QUESTION OP PENSIONS. i A MATTER OF INTEREST. The Government has agreed, on the suggestion of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association, to pay tho pensions of sanatorium and hospital patients into- the Post Office Savings Bank in order to give the soldier the benefit of interest. The executive of the association recently suggested to the department concerned that if a soldier patient is in hospital for more than three months the pension payment due to him be deposited in the Post Office Savings Bank subject to necessary restrictions with reJTard to withdrawals. It was suggests ed that the accounts should be opened by the Commissioner of Pensions as trustee. The association pointed out that this would mean that althouuh tiro pensioner eventually received the intereat upon the amount deposited he could not withdraw the principal..

The Commissioner of Pensions has notified the acting-general secretary of the N.Z.R.5.A. thai approval lias been given to ho suggestion, and that, the now system will bo brought into operation at an early date with tho largo amount of arrears at present held by the department. ;