"HAVE LET US DOWN"

Chronicle (Levin), 7 April 1949, Page 5

"HAVE LET US DOWN"

Press Association)

Age Beneficwries Ask For Larger Allowance

(Per

'WELLINGTON, April 6, "I will not Jet you ftQwi ip tftes eventide qf.Jife." . After makjng tfiis quot^tioP frp.Pl ths lgte'Rt. Bpjl M. J. ^ayage, Mr. & jyiulYanak, qf Napier, gaid to the gathsring of g,ge 8en.eficiari.es in Wellington fconiglit: ."f don't know what he wouia think if he were here today. Those ivho haye followed him have let us down very hadly." The meeting was a pubU? Pne bkt ti)® uiajority of thoso present— abqut 8Q— ^ivei'e ggp befiehpihl'ieSt The pptgome was the passing of threp resolptiQiis seekjng an increase in the old age benefit, , The old age bepeficiaries were the only people in New Zealand who were being robbed of social security benefits that Alr. Savage . had said would be everybody's benefit, said Alr. Mulvgnab. The possibilit}1 of a depaonstration being Qfganisecl to aid tlpeif eaiise, was inentioned by Mr. Alulvanah. "I hope we will stand in mass . foree on the steps of Parliament and xnake the Priuie Alinister eotne out. Tken let ns demand that >this position shall ncrt continue." He said that with tbo ris_mg cost of living, the £2 5s qld agc benefit was entirely insufficient. The benefit was not enpugh to Jcoep the aged decently fed, particularly wjth iiigh rents being paid for rooms, said the president of the Wellington Old Age Beneficiaries ' Assoeiatiqn,' Alrs. F 5IcComish. It was wrong that they should have to go to jumbie saies and to second hand shops to buy the- castoff clothes of others. The resolutions urged that Cabinet immediately eonsider increasing the weekly allowance. The meeting eonsidered that social security benefits were nnrelated to any perinanent standards of value and urged upon the Government the advisability of relating bene fits to some set proportion of the basic wage as pronounced by the Court ot Arbitration, rising and falling to its deerees. - Copies of the resolutions are to be sent to the Rrime Alinister, Alinister of Finance and Alinister of Social Security . The president of the Wellington Ilousewives' Association, Mrs. F, F Gilmore, presided.