AID FOR SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 223, 14 June 1919, Page 10

AID FOR SOLDIERS

RETROSPECTIVE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

NEW REGULATIONS EXPLAINED

Regulations have been gazetted providing for retrospective financial assistance to soldiers who left Xew Zealand before financial assistance was offering. An official explanation of' the nurposo ami effect of lho regulations follows:— The Soldiers' Finiuiciul , Assistance Board under its original regulations could only extend assistance to'Fhe soldier or his dependants during his service, but amendments have been mndo in the regulations enabling the board to cover cases which formerly could Jiot bo dealt with, as grants could not be made retrospective for more than three months before, the dale, of the application. Though great publicity was given to the echeine hundreds of dependante of eoldiers have, undergone, considerable financial hardship as a. result of the soldiers' military service, and the board had no power to meet their claims. In many cases the omission to put in a claim at the proper time ivae only detected on the return of the soldier, and the recent arrival of many men of the Main Body and other reinforcements revealed the' fact that some were not aware that they could have obtained grants from the Financial Assistance Board to meet the recurrent obligations which they were not aide to finance out of tiioir pay and allowance.?. These obligations are mainly in respect of mortgages on property and life insurances, with war loading. There arc many cases of hardship which the board would have alleviated had it possessed Iho power to maku retrospect ivo grants. Tho uew regulations givo. it this power, even though the soldier has received his discharge.

The new arrangement provides thai the soldier already ill New Zealand must apply within three months of the data of gazetting tho regulations; viz., Juno 10, 1919, and in the case of men still to bo returned, within three months o! the date of their arrival in New Zea« land. In approved cases tho Soldiors , Financial Assistance Board may eon. tiuiio its grant for six months after tho soldier's discharge. Discharged men may thus submit, an application for assistance, which will be dealt with on exactly the same lines ns though it had been mado in the ordinary course during tho period of tho soldier's service, namely, with n -view to remove unduo financial hardship by reason of military service. If an application had previously' beon declined only on the ground of tho board's lack of jurisdiction, it should now bo renewed. A typical case in which tho new retrospective regulations will operato to give- relief is for instance, in which a business has been carried on during the soldier's absence, and where a. profit and loss account can bo submitted, or an income and expenditure account in the cases of farms or properties. A lump sum, payablo direct to tho payees (or by way of a refund where, tne disbursements have been mane privately or in some- cases borrowed) will, 3io doubt, meet such a case, and remove undue hardship caused by tho soldier's absence on military service. There is one class of application which the board will be obliged to decline. It has received many inquiries from men wlio have for some tune been settled again in civilian life. They are under tho impression,that the extended regulations are intended to assist them with their current obligations. This, of course, is not tho ease. ' . . 1 The extended regulations are/'not intended to apply to applicants who havealready received financial assistance, and only under exceptional circumstances will such cases bo reopened. Nor do the new regulations extend the board's power to make grants which under the bid regulations (apart from the time limit) it would not have considered. Many single men without dependants have approached the board for a retrospective grant, on account of life insurance. In such cases, however, the board would not have authorised a grant in the nr«t place, seeing that the small recurring obligations were met from the soldier's allotment without causing any unduo hardship whatever. The .regulations'just adopted wilr enable the l»ard to meet a number'of wisesof hardship due to the failure of soldiers or their dependants to make application within the spaeinetl time, but this reopening of the scheme cannot be indefinitely; prolonged. Consequently the board directs- special attention to the time limit for applications mentioned earlier in this article