CIVIL SERVANTS’ PENSIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 November 1923, Page 3

CIVIL SERVANTS’ PENSIONS.

POSITION OF WIDOWS. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Nov. 13. Speaking at a presentation made to him yesterday on his retirement from the post office staff, Mr. H. A. Huggins said: “The one thing that keeps public service officers from retiring is the matter of pensions. There are adequate pensions for men, but with widows the case is diffierent. A man could go out with a pension of £3OO to £4OO a year, while all his wife would get is £lB per annum.” Mr. Huggins said he had advised a scheme that would remedy this state of affairs, but the years had passed and the Government always said it had too much else to attend to. He thought a scheme that would confer such benefits on widows should be taken up by someone and carried into effect. It was often said that public servants were being handsomely pensioned off by the Government, but the fact was that the Government only contributed one-fifth of the superannuation fund income, which totalled £480,000. The Government contributed one-fifth of the pension fund, and to say it was handsomely pensioning civil servants was a gross perversion of tife lacts.