RETROSPECTIVE MARRIED ALLOWANCES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 230, 23 June 1919, Page 4

RETROSPECTIVE MARRIED ALLOWANCES

* PAYMENTS IN PROGRESS, The Defence Department's undertaking th lit payment of the retrospective niarrieit 'allowances would commence during (he first week in Juno lias been adhered to about two-thirds of tho total number of warrants having been issued up to Juno 17. These warrants, 5123 in number, represent a total payment of .£lßl,•Kiß. 'J no distribution of tho remainder is rapidly going on, and the accounts of deceased soldiers are being looked up so as' to pay their widows the amounts of retrospective allowance to which they aro entitled. Aii analysis of the individual payments shows that the wive , ; or guardians of motherless children of men wlio went away i\ ith the Main Body, embarking on September 23, 1914, aro drawing £Wl 3s. There is a large issue of warrants for the sum of Mi IBs., which is payable in respect of men who embarked on October li, 1915. The wives of those who embarked a year later draw a little over £14, and as"the date' of embarkation comes nearer to December 31, 1917, when the allowance was niado up to 3s-. per day, the warrants correspondingly decease in amount. The largest sums paid out are to wives of lieutenants who embarked with the Main Body, as these did not draw any allowance in the ordinary course until Januady 1, 1918. The warrants now being distributed mostly represent the country's liability in respect ot men undischarged on April 30, 1919. Payment of retrospective married allowances in respect of men discharged or deceased prior to that date is made after application has been forwarded to tho Officer in Charge of War Expenses, Wellington. A la.rgo number of the' applications have already been sent in, and warrants are being prepared for payment and dispatched daily.