WAR PENSIONS ACT

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2656, 30 December 1915, Page 6

WAR PENSIONS ACT

REVISION BY PARLIAMENT. Criticism has recently been directed at the provisions in the War Pensions Act which authorise inquiries by the Pensions Board regarding the circumstances of claimants for pensions. Some remarks on the question were mado in Auckland by the Prime Minister, the Hon. W. F. Massey. The "Herald" reports Mi-. Massey as saying:—"The pensions scheme is working much more smoothly than it did at first, The people are beginning to understand the Act better than they did. I am quite sure that the more they understand the Act the better they wiil like In many respects it is particularly liberal. A point on which criticism is now directed is that there is no fixed pension for the widow of a man who has been killed. Only the maximum is fixed by the . Act. That, I think, is a matter that will be dealt with by Parliament when opportunity offers, along with any other defects that may be discovered in tho working of the Act. It has to be remembered that the average of tho pensions granted by tho board to widows is higher than the maximum fixed in some of the other Dominions. Good as the Act undoubtedly is, I recognise that it is capable of improvement, and I have not the slightest doubt that tho necessary improvement will be made. It must always be remembered that the pension for the incapacitated man is fixed, though the degree cf incapacity and consequently the degree of earning power is taken into consideration by the board. For instance, a man who has lost some of the fingers of one hand cannot, possibly bo given the same pension as a man who has lost tho use of both arms," >