! i ! 3ATIO&AL PROVIDENT FUKD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2848, 14 October 1908, Page 36

! i ! 3ATIO&AL PROVIDENT FUKD.

THE GOVERNMENT BILL. (Fsou Our Own Cobbbspohdekt.) WELLINGTON, October 9. The bill drafted with a view to providing a national provident fund was circulated to-night. The Dill embodies a scheme for the establishment of a ■ national provident fund, contributors to which are thereby enabled and encouraged to make provision for old age and sickness and for the maintenance of their i widows and orphans. I The fund is subsidised and guaranteed i by the Government in the same manner as the Public Service Superannuation Fund. All persons may Become contritutors who are resident in New Zealand and are between 16 and 45 years of age, I and whose income does not exceed £200 a year. The contributions to the fund are weekly payments* the amount of which depends (1) on the age at which the contributor first joins the fund, and (2) the amount of -the pension for which he elects to contribute. Thus, for a pension of 10s a week, the weekly payment varies from 9d a week at the age of 17 to 4s lOd a week at the age of 45. Provisions are made for the payment of contributions by lump sums in advance, and for the benefit of contributors who fall into arrears ; a contributor may at any time elect to withdraw from the fund, and is then entitled to a -return of' all his contributions, less any payments ' already received. The benefits secured by contributors are tbe following :—(1): — (1) A pension at the age of 60 varying in amount from 10s to 40s a week, according to the rate of contribution ; (2) widows and orphans' pensions (if any contributor dies after he has been a contributor for not less than five years, leaving children under the age of 14 years, a sum of 7s 6d a week is payable to each child until the age of 14, ~ and also to the widow so long as she has any child under 14 dependent upon her) ; (3) sickness 'and accident insurance (if any contributor becomes, after five years, incapacitated by sickness or accident for a period of more than three months while "Ire is under the age of 60 years, and has children under 14 dependent upon him, he receives aVallowance of 7s 6d a week for each of those children during the subsequent period of his incapacity). As an illustration of the operation of the scheme, a, man who joins the fund at the . age of 25, and elects to contribute at the rate of Is 3d a week, and who subsequently marries and has four children, secures for himself the following benefits : — (a) a pension of 10s a week at 60 for the rest of his life; (b) an allowance of 308 a week during any period of incapacity exceeding three months, so long as he is under 60 years of age and his children are under 14; (c) an allowance for his wife and children on his death of £1 17s 6d a week so long as those children are under 14; (d) the right at any time, on giving 12 months' notice, •

* to obtain a refund of his contributions', j less any benefits already received from ' the fund. s ..