PENSIONS REVISION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19106, 29 August 1936, Page 5

PENSIONS REVISION

Three Bills Introduced ALL-ROUND INCREASES MADE Widespread Relaxation of Conditions PROVISION FOR INVALIDS AND BLIND ‘ j * " 7" (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. To make operative the pensions increases announced in the Budget and to establish the new invalidity pension, three bills were introduced by Governor’s Message prior to the House of Representatives adjourning yesterday. One of. the most important features of the Family Allowances Bill, explained the Hon. W. E. Parry, Minister of Pensions, is that instead of a father only being allowed to draw, an allowance it can also be drawn by the wife. In addition to restoring the cut as from July L the bill extends the maximum permissible income from £3 5s Od to £4 a week. Features of the Pensions Bill include a reduction in the age for residence eligibility from 25 to 20 years, increasing the old age pension as from July 1 from Its 6d to £1 a \\ with a further addition operating from December 1 of -s tut, making the total increase 5s a week. There is a change mt he method of determining income so that property will not he a handicap unless it produces income. There had been eases, said the Minister, where a pension applicant possessing property which produced nothing uas barred from receiving the pension. The widow’s pension would be increased to £1 a week, with a continuance of 10s a -week pension to dependent children. Deserted wives are to be treated as widows in respect to pensions to themselves and children. The Minister also explained that wives of inmates of mental hospitals had their pension stopped if they escaped, or were released on probation. It was sometimes advisable to- permit men to be nursed at home, and there were cases, where men refused to leave on probation owing to the financial disadvantage to their wives. This pension would now continue during the currency of a reception order. : Miners’pensions, said the Minister, are -to be brought under the pensions system, and their widows would receive a pension of 17s 6d a week. Invalidity pensions would be payable in respect of illness, accident, or congenital defect at the rate of £1 a week for an individual, 10s. if there is a wife, and 10s for each child. Pensions for the blind would be embodied in this pension and increased to £l. Persons under 20 years of age avliq are capable of being mentally developed would be under the Education Department for training until they reached pensions age. Applications received would date back to July 1 it received this month; otherwise-they would date from the time the pension was granted. The Minister of Defence, the Hon. F. Jones, who is.in,, charge of the war pensions amendment, stated that this would restore the cuts in the pensions of dependants and the soldiers . economic pension would be increased to 25s a week. AN ldows claims had been recognised only if marriage took place within seven years of discharge, but the bill would recognise marriages : for pension purposes which took place prior to August 30, 1936.