PLAN FOR SOCIAL SECURITY

Southland Times, Issue 23498, 3 May 1938, Page 8

PLAN FOR SOCIAL SECURITY

Plea For Partial Exemption WORKERS IN PUBLIC SERVICE RETENTION OF EXISTING SCHEMES URGED (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 2. Full preservation of the existing Public Service superannuation funds, including the continuance of compulsory contributions for present employees and future entrants to the Public Service, and provision for contributions to existing superannation funds to be exempt from that portion of the proposed special tax of a shilling in the pound which is actuarially assessed as required to provide the proposed additional pensions, were proposals put before the Parliamentary Committee on Superannuation and National Health in a statement presented by Mr F. W. Millar, honorary secretary of the central committee of the Combined Public Service Organizations. Mr Millar said his organization i epresented 11 Public Service associations with a total membership of 51(560. “Statements already made by individual members of the Government have been to the effect that existing Public Service schemes will be safeguarded,” Mr Millar’s statement says, “but in the absence of specific provisions it is incumbent upon the Public Service organizations formally to express their unanimous desire for the preservation of their superannuation funds.”

The statement detailed the financial position of the funds and the history of their growth. It concluded: “Public servants yield the forefront to no section of the community in their public spirit and willingness to shoulder their fair share of direct and indirect taxation. When, however, there is proposed a special tax for increased pensions in which, except in extraordinary circumstances, the very compulsory nature of their inclusion in State superannuation funds would debar them from participation, they consider that the committee cannot but agree that our claims for partial exemption from the proposed special tax are reasonable.” REQUEST TO GIVE EVIDENCE A statement was presented to the Committee by the Superannuated Public Servants’ Association which asked leave to present evidence in support and explanation of its proposals. It proposed that every married superannuitant whose present allowance was £3 a week or less and every unmarried superannuitant whose allowance was 30 shillings a week or less should be given the option of transferring to the new national scheme without any transfer from the present to the new fund of any contributions to the former. It also suggested that any superannuitant who made a transfer should be deemed to have £1 a week of income “from other sources” and that if his present allowance is £1 a week or less (or 30/- or less) he should on his transfer to the new scheme still receive £1 a week from the present superannuation fund as “income from other sources.”

The statement contended that the adoption of these proposals would cover quite a large proportion of hardships borne by men who, under the Finance Act 1931, were compulsorily retired. It also suggested that widows of former superannuitants should come under the same benefits as those which would be approved under the above proposals. The final suggestion is that taxpayers over the age of 60 and superannuitants irrespective of age should under the new scheme be required to pay out of their “personal income” only such portion of any of the new tax of a shilling in the pound as the State deemed to be allocated to the needs of the health insurance scheme, as apart from the national superannuation scheme. The Minister of Finance (the Hon. W. Nash) asked if public servants would have objected to an increase in old age pensions made from the consolidated fund. Mr Millar: That all depends. We have had to deal with the scheme as outlined. That question raises another aspect. Mr Nash: You as a service would not object to the Government providing for people in the community who can’t provide for themselves and never will be able to? Mr Miller: No. Mr Nash: If the contribution made for the payment of pensions to everybody does not proportionately exceed the sum that is paid by the State to public servants, would public servants object? Mr Millar: I don’t know whether they would object. Public servants were given an inducement to join up and stick to their jobs in order to get superannuation benefits. Mr Nash: I don’t say that public servants have had a fair deal. I don’t think the superannuation scheme has been properly managed. AID FOR OTHERS Mr Millar, replying to other questions, said he did not think public servants would object from the social point of view to assistance being given those who were not able to care for themselves. The Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) asked Mr Millar if he would be surprised to know that he had received a communication from one substantial branch of the Public Service congratulating the Government on its proposals. Mr Millar: I think the Public Service as a whole would say the same thing. You made a statement, sir, about the position of public servants. Mr Savage: Oh, yes. That statement is getting moss on it, but I did not say for one moment I would exempt anyone Jrom taxation. I am not asking the public servants to join this scheme, but I would remind you that members of the public have been paying into various Public Service funds for years and will have to go on doing so. The moment the Government decided to do something for the people who have been paying for generations past there seems to be objection to it. Isn’t it a fact that people paid some seven to nine millions into the various Public Service funds?

Mr Millar said the State had had to pay large amounts because of defects in the past. Mr Savage: You have received an assurance that the Government is going

to face up to the position of superannuation funds? Mr Millar: Yes, that is so. AGE QUALIFICATION “A HARDSHIP” EFFECT OF PROPOSALS ON WOMEN (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 2. The effect of the Government’s pensions proposals on women was outlined by Mesdames A. M. Hutchinson and Rhoda Bloodworth, who gpve evidence before the Parliamentary Committee thi_ afternoon on behalf of the New Zealand Society for the Protection of Women and Children. Chief, among several recommendations made by the society was the lowering of the age at which women may receive payments under the Government’s superannuation . scheme to 55.

Cases were quoted where the present age qualification of 60 imposed a great hardship and where payments were limited or refused altogether by the pensions department because of the anomalies in the existing law. It was - emphasized that few employers desired to engage any woman in industry who was more than 50 years of age, but even were she qualified to do so and her wages exceeded the amount allowed for the couple, the husband would then be disqualified for pension and she would have to support him too. By altering the age to 55 for all women the Government would be maintaining the five years’ difference in the retiring age of men and women already recognized in the existing legislation. Other recommendations made by the society dealt largely with anomalies in the payments of the family allowance and the invalidity pension, and also with the position of married women living apart from their husbands, either because of legal separation or desertion.