STATE PENSIONS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2116, 6 April 1914, Page 6

STATE PENSIONS.

; LAST YEAR'S DISBURSEMENTS. INCREASED BENEFITS. Some interesting particulars .of tlie operations of the Pensions Department during tlie financial year which closed at tho end of last month were given to a reporter oil Saturday by the Ron. F. M. B. Fisher, Minister in charge of the Pensions Department. In some instances the figures are subject to slight modification by tho inclusion of small returns not yet embodied. Tho annual figures on this occasion are of particular interest as indicating the cost incurred''in granting the pension to women at the-age of sixty years, instead of sixty-fire, under the amending Act passed last' session. .' Tho number of pensioners on the roll at March 31, 1914, and the increase on tho figures for tlie previous year, aro as follow: —

Number. '..Inc. Old age pensions 18,050 ' 1,541 Widows' pensions 1,548 235 Military pensions 1,240 672 The gross payments for tho year elided March 31, 1914, have been as follow :— Increaso 011 last year. ' £ £ Old ago pensions 416,750 1,000 Widows' pensions ... 27,068 4,954 Military pensions ... 29,431 25,749 Tho payments -made under this head in tTio previous year were, for tho last quarter of the year only. The gross amount paid by way of pensions in the rear ended March 31, 1913, was as follows / Old age pensions 415,749 Widows' pensions 22,113 Military'pensions 3,678 Total 441,540 With tho large increaso of old ago pensions during last financial year, namely 1 ! 1541, it may bo thought that there is something peculiar about the small increase of £1000 in tho payments for tlie same period, but tho explanation is that towards <the end of last year some four hundred old ago pensions were converted into military pensions. The consequent decrease in old age pensions did not appear until tho year just ended. Further, a. considerable proportion of the new pensions during tlie past year consisted of women under sixty-five, wlio have been admitted to tho roll during the past four months and on account of whom, of course, full pensions liavo not yet been paid. The number of women not over sixty-five years of age on tlie roll at March 31 ( 1914, was, in round numbers, 1200, representing an annual liability of £28,000. The Departmental estimate made in June last was £70,000 for some three thousand pensioners for the first year, and it will thus be seen that with only four months of tlie year pjone, considerably over one-third of the estimated- annual expenditure has become payable. , Tho annual liability, in regard to all pensions on tho roll at March 31, 1914, is as follows:— £ Old age pensions 440,000 Widows' pensions 29,500 Military pensions 44,640 Total 514,140