WORKING CLASS PENSIONS

Grey River Argus, 11 April 1911, Page 2

WORKING CLASS PENSIONS

LAWS IN PRANCE AND GERMANY. BRITISH BOARD OF TRADE REPORT. Schemes of insurance, optional or compulsory, agfainst the unfortunate possibilities of life, are amongst the most paternal reforms that the modern State concerns itself about. In Australia the old age and infirm'V pensions are not based on insurance, but are paid from the consolidated revenue. It is the same in Great Britain, but New Zealand's •National Provident Fund, just inaugurated,, depends (remarks the Sydney jTelegjraph) upon the cooperation and contributions of the beneficiaries to be for its success. This Dominion law has the most lib'- 1 eral provisions of any similar law in the world. The same kind of humanitarian laws are in torce in the countries ot Europe, but the self-reliance of the' people there is fully conserved' by demanding' contributions, compulsory in most cases, in order that they may secure the benefits when necessity requires it. • The State assistance given to the workers' is fulljr described in a voluminous report just issued by the Labour Department of . the British Board of Trade. It is called "The Fourth Abstract of Foreign Labour Statistics." The facts and tigures compiled relate to twenty countries, and are comprehensive. They only refer to State schemes of ;a compulsory character, which are grouped in tour sections as follows: (1) Accident, (2) sickness, (3) infirmity and old age, and (4) combined insurance. Space will only allow a condensed report of the old age and infirmity section. It was found that Germany and France were the only countries that had legislated for the compulsory insurance of the working classes generally, including agricultural labourers and domestic servants, against old age and infirmity. Uther countries' had applied the principle to special classes of workers, such as Austria, Hungary and Belgium, to miners. In Germany the cost of the old age and infirmity pension £s borne 9»V employers and workpeople in equal shares, but the Imperial Government that obtains bO per cent of its revenue from its own trading- en'erpnses, makes the uniform annual subsidy of £2 10s to every pension granted. For the purpose cf fixing the amount of the contrib'u-.ons md pensions, the insured are diviied into five classes, according to *hei r wages, as calculated in di^ent ways (the usual basis being- 300 times the daily wage of the class of worker insured), namely, those which (a) do not exceed £17 10s per ' annum, (b) range from £17 10s to £27 iUs, (c) range from £27 10i to £42 lus, (d) range from £42 10s io £57 JWs, and (c) exceed £57 10s. The present weekly contributions payable by employers and workpeople jointly arc lid, 2id, 3d, 3£d, and 4£d respectively, according to the class. An old age pension may be claimed by any worker who has completed his V'Uth year and paid contributions for 1200 weeks, whether or not he is unfit for work. An infirmity pension, on the other hand, may be claimed at any age- by any worker who has paid contributions for 200 weeks, provided he is unable to earn onethird of the current daily wages earned in his locality by persons of his own class and of normal capacity. Persons entitled to either pension must make their choice between them, and cannot draw both. The old age pension is £3 in the first wages class, £4 10s in the second, £Q m the third, £7 10s in the fourth and £9 in the fifth, plus the Govern.ment subsidy of £2 10s in each case. The infirmity pension is made up of three elements, a fixed sum' according- to the wages class (£3 in the ' first class, 10s in the Second, £4 in 'the third, £4 10s in the fourth, and in the fifth), a supplement dependent upon the number of contributions paid, -and the Government subsidy of £2*. 10s. ■ Oh the basis of 500 contributions the pensions so calculated would. '■• amount -to £6 ss, £7 10s, £8 10s,-t£9. 10s, arid 10s respectively in the five classes, but the possible • maxima are about twice these amountsi In the event of death before a pension' has .been assigned, half the amount of the- premiums paid (in other: words, the full" share paid by the insured- person)" is returned to the relatives^' and; the same return is made to women, not in recipt of pensions, who marry. In 'France a law of' April oth, 1910 (which will come into operation during 1911), applied the obligation to be insured against old age and infirmity to the whole population, urban and rural equally, receiving less than £120 a year in salary or wages ; this population is estimated at 10.500UUO. The funds out of which pensions will be paid will be- derived from regular contributions made by those insured and byj 'their employers in equal amounts, and State subsidies in the form of a yearly addition, not exceeding £2 8s to each annuity purchased by these contributions. The contributions payable yearly are 14s 4d in respect -of a man, 9s 7d tor 'a woman; and 7s- 2d for a minor (under eighteen years.) Old-age pensions become due at the age of sixtyfive years, and the contributory period necessary • for receiving the full State subsidy in thirty years, but at the age of fifty-five years it will t'e competent for an insured person To anticipate his pension, in which case the State grant will be proportionately reduced. ■ *f ; an insured person N becomes permanently incapitated >by reason of accident or infirmity, he may like-, wise anticipate his pension drrespectivp of his aigie, .and- in such oa.ses the -State subsidy will be increased be-

yond £2 8s per annum. The assurance of persons corning- under the law may be undertaken by . the various friendly societies and pension funds, including- those established by employers and those attached ito tmclc unions, subject to approval and control by the Minister of Finance. The law also provides for optional assurance 'by certain classes of persons who are not salary or wage earners '(•e.g., small landowners, and farmers and smal^ 'employiers), iby persons earning 1 more than £120, but not more than £200 per annum, and by the wives and widows of \vag:e-earn-ers compulsorily insured.. It appears ■that the maximum pension possible under the law <(dn the case of a person insured from the age of twelve to that iof sixity-iive years) will be £16 Us inclusive of the • State subsidy; persons 'insured from the >ag~e of 20, 30, .40, -and 50 years would, at the aigre of 65, be entitled to pensions of £13 4s, £9 lls, £6 8s and £4 15s -respectively..