TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays WEDNESDAY, 19th -SEPTEMBER, 1945 SOCIAL SECURITY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 71, Issue 6138, 19 September 1945, Page 4

TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays WEDNESDAY, 19th -SEPTEMBER, 1945 SOCIAL SECURITY

THE balance-sheet of the Social Security Department for the year ended on 31st March last indicates the gradual development of the service which the Government has made a public responsibility. The taxation levy for the year amounted to £14,276,406. jan increase of almost a million pounds on last year’s figure- To this was added (another £4,500,000 by transfer from the Consolidated Fund, this figure increasing by £400,000 over the year previous. On the other side of the ledger monetary benefits showed an increase of over £1,200,000 for the year, and reached a total of £13,533,462. Similarly, medical benefits jumped from £4,726,680 to £5,234,713. The chairman of the Commission briefly comments that * the volume of work flowing through the Department shows no ’ sign of slackening,” and speaks of the developing staff shortages. The figures merit closer analysis. Noticeable is the fact that 104,653 age beneficiaries—as separate from the universal superannuants —absorbed £8,492,015 of the fund. When this figure is compared with the report of the Government Statistician on the age groups of the population, it means that" only about 8000 people of the qualifying age are not receiving the age benefits. When, therefore, it is considered that within this age group are all of the people who retire from the professions, from businesses and farms—from, indeed, all the spheres of active life which have enabled self-provision for old age to have been made it would seem that Government liberality is imposing an undue strain on the community. In marked contrast with this considerable claim of the age group is the modest £22,253 provided for orphans’ benefits to suggest that the voting qualification of the respective beneficiaries is a factor in determining the measure of social need; and it is startling to find that last year, after providing for age, sickness, invalidity, emergency, and other benefits—in other words, for the unemployable no less than £27,822 was paid away for unemployment; and this at a time when New Zealand experienced its most acute stage of labour shortage in all industrial spheres is unaccountable. In all 1250 persons were recipients of these unemployment payments and another 806 claimants were granted emergency benefits on the ground of hardship. The biggest increase in the medical benefits wajs for pharmaceutical services, the increase under this heading about £200,000. The hospital benefits were almost stationary at £2,266,688, but what are called supplementary benefits rose from £137,823 to £170,032. The general trend, though, is toward the consideration of the age group; both in number of claimants and value of payments this one item has become about 50 per cent claimant in the whole scheme of social security; and, as the Minister of Finance has announced a further increase in the value of this benefit, it can be foreseen that next year’s balance-sheet recording will further reveal the trend; and there can be more truth that it is pleasant to admit that this trend moves in sympathy with what the Government designs as the result of its liberality in other directions.