AGEING POPULATION
BRITAIN’S PENSION PROBLEM
NZPA Special Correspondent' , LONDON, Dec. 14. Britain’s population is ageing so fast that in 10 years there will be on? oldage . pensioner of 65 or more to every four workers. In 30 years the ratio will be one to three. Mr James Griffiths, Minister of National Insurance, made this point in reply to Mr Percy Daines (Socialist, East Ham 1 North). Mr Daines asked for the Minister’s policy on .the charter of the National Federation of Old-age Pensioners’ Association, which demands £2 a week for all men and women at 60. ... This demand, said Mr Griffiths, would cost immediately £500,000,000 a year. If this extra sum were raised in the same way as the cost of the present pensions, working people and employers would each have to pay an extra 2s 3d a week General taxation would have to provide. £340,000.000 extra, rising to £400.000,000 by 1958 an extra 2s 6d on the standard rate of income tax. Justice would demand that widows, the sick, and the unemployed should have their benefits raised to the same level. This would cost £2,000,000 more.
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Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 26956, 16 December 1948, Page 7
Word Count
187AGEING POPULATION Otago Daily Times, Issue 26956, 16 December 1948, Page 7
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