SUPERANNUATION PLAN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 102, 3 May 1938, Page 8

SUPERANNUATION PLAN

PROPOSALS MADE BY PUBLIC SERVANTS STATEMENT PLACED BEFORE COMMITTEE t Per Plea. Association. 1 WELLINGTON, May 2. The 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 (2) a provision for contributors to the existing superannuation funds to be exempt from that portion of the proposed special tax of a shilling in the £1 in which it is actuarially assessed as required to provide proposed additional pensions—were proposals put before the Parliamentary Committee on Superannuation and National Health in a statement presented by Mr. F. W. Millar, hon. secretary of the central committee of the oembined Public Service organisations. Mr, Millar said that his organisation represented 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 the existing Public Service schemes will be safeguarded,’’ Mr. Millar’s statement says, “but in the absence of specilic provisions it is incumbent upon the Public Service organisations 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. V|ien, however, there is proposed a special tax for increased pensions, in which except in extaordinary circumstances the very-

compulsory nature of their inclusion in the State superannuation funds would debar them from participation, they consider that tre committee cannot but agree that our claims for partial exemption from the proposed special tax are reasonable."

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 I .' ill be able to? | Mr. Millar: No. I Mr. Nash: If the contribution made I for payment of pensions to everybody j does not proportionately exceed the sum that is paid by the State to public servants would the 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 the public servants have had a fair deal. I don't think the superannuation scheme has been properly managed. Mr. Millar, replying to other questions, said that he did not think the public servants would object from a social point of view to assistance being given to those who were not able to care for themselves. Mr. Savage's Questions Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage asked Mr. Millar if he would be surprised io know that he had received a communication from one substantial branch of the Public Service congratulating the Government on its proposals.

Mi. 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 from 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. lhe moment the Government decides 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 the people have paid some £7,000,000 to £9,000,000 into various Public Service funds? Mr. Millar said that the State 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 the superannuation funds. Mr. Millar: Yes, that Is so. Superannuitants’ Views 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 allowanve was £3 a week or less, and every unmarried supei annuitant, whose allowance was £1 10s 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 the transfer should be deemed to have £1 a week of income “from another source," and that if his present allowance is £1 a week or less (or £1 10s 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 contends that the adoption of these proposals would cover a large proportion of hardships borne by men who, under the Finance Act, 1931 were compulsorily retired. It also suggests that the 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, if any, of the new tax of a shilling in the £1 as the State deemed, to be allocated to the needs of the health insurance scheme, apart from the national superannuation scheme.