FRIENDLY SOCIETIES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 208, 28 May 1919, Page 8

FRIENDLY SOCIETIES

AID FROM THE STATE EXTRA WAR BURDENS MATERNITY BONUS INCREASED * Cabinet lias dealt with the matters recently brought before the Hon. Sir James Allen' and other Ministers of the. Crown by the deputation from friendly societies. The Hon. J. A. Hanan, Minister in Charge of Friendly Societies, mado n statement on the subject yesterday. Increased Maternity Allowance. In connection with (he- request mado by the deputation relating to the maternity allowance, he was pleased, to say that thrrecommondation mado by. his colleague, tho Hon. A. M. Myers, Minister in Charge of the National Provident Fund, had been approved, with the result that the necessary legislation would be prepared to raise the allowance to members of friendly societies from .U to £6, and to increase the wages limitation for this allowance for all persons in the fund and in friendly societies to ,£250.. These concessions would be greatly appreciated, as they would have the effect of enabling the allowance to be paid to a larger section of the people, and would remove the disabilities that had been. created dur-. ing the last few- years in connection with the nullification for this allowance.

Friendly Society Finance—War Mortality Fund. Mr. Hanan said that throughout tho war he had given the question of friendly society finance anxious consideration. Tho decision to protect the funds against tho war mortality of friendly societies member' which resulted in the establishment by his Department in 1916 of a special fund for the purpose, had been successfully carried out. Without this neb a loss of about .£"0,000 would have fallen upon the friendly societies' benefit funds, but this deficiency had now been reduced to a minimum by means of the co-opera-tive action adopted in this schemo. Soldier Members' Contributions. The Government had further recognised that friendly societies were, deserving of consideration ou account of their soldier members whose contributions, being unpaid while they were serving witft the Forces, entailed an estimated loss oi .£29,000. A scheme had therefore been provided to re-establish the pre-war position in the benefits funds of the societies on this account. In connection with theso two subsidies tho Minister said he was glad to be able to announce that Cabinet had agreed that a sum of .£IOOO (being a Government over-credit to societies in respect of these two accounts) 1m devoted towards further reducing any losses the societies will incur in connection with tho war mortality fund. "After Discharge" Sickness. Referring to what he considered tho most difficult problem to deal with, namely, "after discharge" sickness _ot soldier members of friendly societies, Mr. Hanan said it was very desirable to initiate a system that would enable this matter to be handled on sound lines. In some quarters it was expected that this sickness would constitute a serious drain on tho friendly societies' benefit funds, which were * built up on contributions and conditions quite foreign to the recent war experience. The Government had considered and agreed to tho schcuio submitted by him under which friendly societies should separate. all the sickness of discharged soldiers from that of their other members and establish separate, funds tor tho purpose of assessing and valuing the future experience of these members separately. The Government would subsidise the excess isickness disclosed in these funds to the extent of one-half. The Minister said he honed and believed friendly, societies would co-npernto with his Department in the establishment of these separate sickness funds, in order that this difficult problem might bo placed on a good administrative basis as earlv as possible. He had arranged for the Registrar (Mr. R. E. Hayes) to confer with the societies in connection with tho establishment of the system.