COST OF LIVING BONUS ADDED TO SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS

Wanganui Chronicle, 3 June 1950, Page 4

COST OF LIVING BONUS ADDED TO SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS

Retrospective To May 8; Effort To Make Payment This Month

WELLINGTON, Last Night (PA). —The Minister of Social Security, Mr. Watts, announced today that the Government had decided that as a result of the removal of subsidies, benefits paid from the Social Security Fund shall be increased by a cost of living bonus as from May 8. The benefits affected were: I

Age, invalid’s, miner’s, orphan’s, I widow’s, sickness, unemployment, and emergency benefits, and also ' war veterans’ allowances and the mother’s allowance paid to widows with dependant children.! This was in line with the Prime | Minister’s undertaking that immediate consideration would be I given to the position of those dependent on Social Security bene-) fits.

In general, these benefits are t\ be increased by a flat rate of 10s lOd per month for single persons and £1 Is 8d per month for married couples. Widows with dependent children receiving widow’s benefits, will have their mother’s allowances also increased by 10s lOd a month. Instructions have been given to the Social Security Department to make every endeavour to have these extra amounts paid with the June instalments so that age and other beneficiaries should receive the extra amount at the earliest possible date, and not be penalised in any way. “I wish to emphasise that this payment is by way of cost of living bonus,” said the Minister.

Mr. Watts went on to say that the payment of the extra amount from the Social Security Fund was estimated at just over £1,000,000 a year. Immediately after taking office the Government extended the allowable income of beneficiaries from £52 to £7B a year as a means of assisting beneficiaries who were able to earn money or had an income from other sources. This extension of benefit was a cost to the Social Security Fund of approximately £500,000 for a full year. These two steps already taken by the Government, therefore, amounted to a total increase in payments from the fund of more than £1,500,000 a year.