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Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1384, 9 March 1912, Page 6

FINANCE OF THE SCHEME.

It is estimated that the sum to be raised in tho first year under the National Insuranco Act will come to ■£21,500,000, made up as follows:— £ State 2,500,000 Employers—Health Scheme ... 9,000,000 Unemployed Scheme 000,000 Employees—Health Scheme ... 11,000,000 Unemployed Scheme 1,100,000 Total ■. ,£24,500,000 In order to enable all eligible persons between the ages of 16 aDd 65 to enter the Scheme at a uniform rate of premium, and to qualify, with certain exceptions, for eqii.il benefits, reserve values to the extent of .t'60,000,000 will bo credited at the outset to "approved societies" and* to tho Army and Navy special reserve. It is estimated that tho charge on tho State on account of the Health Insurauco Scheme will bo as follows:— £ 1912-13 1,712,000 1913-H 3,359,000 1915-16 4,563,000 The approximate cost per annum to the State on account of the Unemployment Insurance Sehemo will amount to .£730,000. Tho finance of tho present scheme will be so arranged that the deficiency inevitable in starting a scheme which includes all ages shall in 15 or 16 years be completely wiped out. At tho end of that period the administrators of tho funds will bo in a position to declare increased benefits—e.g., tho reduction of tho pension age. Comparing tho British with the German scheme, a "Daily Mail" writer fays: The fact that the superannuation of all persons over 70 is undertaken by tho Government in this country, whereas in Germany it is a burden on the contributory scheme, makes an enormous difference in the rate 3 of weekly payments, which suffice untL'r tho pj'opo.-ed scheme to produce higher benefits than those conferred by tho Gorman scheme. Moreover, tho German Government makes no contribution to tho cost of sickness as.distinguished from invalidity, whereas tho present scheme proposes to pay one-quarter of such cost in the ca. c e oi women and twoninths in the case of men. There are wveral other points of difference between tho schomo and the German system; e.g., it is not proposed to adopt tho German plan of dividing the industrial population into four classes according to the rate of wages earned, and not, as in Gormany, to Bet up separato machinery for sickness and invalidity. By taking this course, and by tho machinery which has toon adopted ior tho collection of contributions, tho inconvenionco and trouble likely to be caused to employers will bo greatly diminished.