OLD-AGE PENSIONS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 25, 14 September 1911, Page 7

OLD-AGE PENSIONS.

An instruction which T/as issued to postmasters ' iii" ‘ chiljleciion with the of ' 1 Pld-age 'pensions seems to give them ah trifle too much power (says the ■ Christchurch “Press”)- If any postmaster “has reason to believe” that a pensioner “has become possessed of money or income in excess of the amount allowed Ip law ir resnect of tl'O amount of pension giT.': J ,'d ; or is in receipt of regular onvpluymoirt, or misspeiids his pension in drink,” he—the post-master--is to report confidentially ;to the Commissioners, and in the meantime refrain from paying the pension until he receives instructions. quite right for the Department to take all due precautions .against the wrongful payment or pensions, .but to empower a postmaster to hold back,.-, pension instalment because >m, has suspicions that the rocipiiht 'ivPqt'hhtitied to so much, is to place too much authority in his hands. Without considering the possibility that a postmaster might, in the case of a pensioner with whom ho was not on gbod terms, exorcise that power maliciously, the rule that payment of a pension must l)o suspended while the Department is making enquiries into the grounds of a postmaster’s ‘ suspicions —which may bo based on nothing more solid than idle rumour—is.wrong Government Departments do, not work very fast, and white the Old-Age Pensions’ Department was investigating a caso in which, perhaps quite wrongly, a postmaster had withheld payment, the pensioner might lie placed" in sad straits. The pension, once granted, ought not to bo withhold, even for a month or two, except on well-established and proved grounds.