SOLDIERS’ PENSIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25238, 29 May 1943, Page 4

SOLDIERS’ PENSIONS

Irj. calling for increases in war pensions th.e conference of the Returned Services Association is correctly interpreting the spirit , of the people of this country, and is doing so at’ the proper time. ,It will be desired by all New Zealanders that the men who have, served them on the battlefronts or in other essential military capacity during this war, and the widows or other dependents of those who have lost their, lives, should in no case be subjected to economic injustice as the result of their sacrifices. The full need for compensating those who have suffered disability through war service, or whose families have been put at a financial disadvantage by their death, .goes deeper into the obligations of the citizen to" reward servidb on his behalf than the mere payment of a pension. No matter how generous the scale, the payment of pensions does not discharge the people’s indebtedness to v those who have faced the perils of battle on their* behalf. But it is entirely necessary that this scale should be justly fixed, as'representing the basic acknowledgment by the State of its sense of responsibility towards those who have served it well without counting the cost. The present war pension scale in New Zealand is no 5 longer just, when the increase in all costs—or, put another way, the decline in money values—is.considered since it was devised. Actually, the provisions of the present scale in their main features date back to 1915, to the War Pensions Act of that year, which fixed basic rates for soldiers’ disability pensions and pensions'for dependents that have not been revised,'although some allowances—ln the case, for example, of economic pensions in certain circumstances have been made. The position to-day reniairis, however, that a returned soldier from the Great War, or from the present conflict, who is totally disabled is expected to live on a maximum pension which is demonstrably inadequate to-day to admit of his preserving a decent standard of living. Other soldiers’ pensions, such as of those men who have suffered amputation of limbs, have been sharply criticised by both the R.S.A. and the 2nd N.Z.E.F. Association. The present pension for a soldier’s widow with children, £2 plus an economic pertsion of a maximum of £1 a week, and children’s allow-

ances, is manifestly ’ insufficient to compensate for the loss of a father considered merely in the capacity of breadwinner. The pension for the childless widow, £ 1 10s a week, with economic pension subject to other income, would certainly not provide her with adequate support. These pensions, plus an increase in the allowances for children to 12s 6d a week—this is certainly the minimum required—are among those advocated by the R.S.A., with increases to raise the soldiers’ disability pensions to a total of £4 15s. The actual proposals made to the Government by the R.S.A. may not be accepted in their entirety, but the Government is committed to an undertaking to overhaul the present scale of pensions and it might advantageously view the recommendations 6f the R.S.A. as furnishing a basis on which it might found its own modification of the existing arrangement. The Financial Statement, which is to be delivered next week, will show the extent to which this modification will meet the claims of the ex-servicemen which may be roughly defined as amounting to a demand for a decent and reasonable standard of living.