PARLIAMENT IN SESSION

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 79, Issue 7123, 21 October 1949, Page 5

PARLIAMENT IN SESSION

PENSIONS FOR WIVES OF DISABLED SERVICEMEN ADVOCACY BY MR G. F. SIM “ We hear time and again that New Zealand leads the world, but it does not in this case, because Canada is giving a pension to the wives of disabled servicemen, and the matter is at the moment being considered in Great Britain,” said G. F. Sim, speaking in the House of Representatives on the Wlar Pensions Amendment Bill. In asking the Government to consider a pension of 30s a week for the wives of disabled servicemen as of right, I am ’not asking anything that will create a precedent. If a miner is incapacitated as a result of the occupation which he has taken up voluntarily his wife receives a pension of £2 5s a week. .Surely, then, the wives of those who are disabled as a result of serving their xMxuntry- have as* strong a claim the wives of miners. # ‘ “ I am not suggesting in any way that miners’ wives should not receive that pension; I do not question,..that at all; but I do suggest that the wives of disabled personnel have as strong or a stronger claim for a similar benefit. “I Government 1 will do something towards implementing my suggestion. My first suggestion is that the basic war disability pension should be increased from £3 10s to £5 a week. Secondly, I suggest that with the increase in the basic war disability pension the present; economic pension b.e abolished except in cases of distinct hardship where special circumstances warrant additional assistance. Thirdly, I suggest that the disability grading of war amputees and servicemen suffering from a 75 per cent or greater disability shpuld.be increased by five per cent every five years after attaining the rge of 35 years. Fourthly, ! suggest that the wives of 100 per cent disabled servicemen be granted a pension as of right,. The amount could be determined by those who handle such matbut I would suggest that it should be somewhere in the Vicinity of 30s a week.”