BRITAIN'S MERRY WIDOWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22067, 25 September 1933, Page 16

BRITAIN'S MERRY WIDOWS

STEADY RE-MARRIAGE RATE BIG SAVINGS IN PENSIONS. Widows in Britain are still wonderful. At least men seem to think so, for widows are remarrying at a steady rate (says a London writer). Official figures show that 130 of them are marrying every week. They are making husbands happy. The widows are also doing their best to help the Chancellor of the Exchequer to ease the burden on national finance, for they are struck off the widows' pension ■ roll on remarriage. - Attractive widows save the Government £150,000 a year. And there are 6500 women receiving pensions trying marriage again every year. The amount of a widow s pension is 10s per week. Many of the widows have children, but they only cease to draw their own weekly 10s on remarriage. Their children's allowance continues. Perhaps it is this weekly dowry that makes widows more attractive. ' 1 erhaps it is the fact that they often have a home already furnished for a new nusbamh Perhaps it is—well, anyway, the Government likes these " merry widows. They save money. _ ' In some cases remarriage involves the widows in a distinct financial sacrifice, especially where the new, husband is earning a relatively low wage. In such cases the widow has perhaps been out at work herself, and her income from this source, coupled with the 10s a week pension she has been drawing from the Government, has enabled her to live a comfortable hie in her small home. On taking her new husband, however, she frequently has to give up not only her pension, but her own work and wages. The figures show, in fact, that most or the women prefer to make their new married life a full-time job. And as many of the widows marry widowers with children of their own who need looking after, a decision to stay at home often becomes essential.