BENEFITS TO WOMEN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 103, 4 May 1938, Page 4

BENEFITS TO WOMEN

LOWERING OF’ AGE I RGED [ Per Preee «MOClatlon. J WELLINGTON, May 2. The effect of the Government’s pensions proposals on women, was outlined by Mesdames A. M. Hutchinson and Rhoda Bloodworth, who gave evidence before the Parliamentary committee this afternoon on behalf of th» New Zealand Society for the Protection of Women and Children. Chief among several recommends* lions made by the society was the lowering of the age at which women may receive payments under the Government’s superannuation scheme to 55. Cases were quoted where the present age qualification of 60 imposed a great hardship and where payments were limited or refused altogether by the Pensions Department because of anomalies in the existing law. It was stressed that few employers desired to engage any woman in industry over 50 years of age but even were she qualified to do so and her wages exceeded the amount allowed for a couple, the husband would then b« disqualified for a pension and she would have to support him too, by altering the age to 55 for all women the Government would be maintaining the five years’ difference in the retiring age of men and women already recognised in the existing legislation. Other recommendations made by the society dealt largely with anomalies in payments of the family allowance and invalidity pension, also with the position of married women living apart from their husbands either as a result of legal separation or desertion.