SALARY CUTS

Hokitika Guardian, 9 April 1932, Page 5

SALARY CUTS

PENSION FIGURES

INTEREST REDUCED

(By Telegraph—Per Press Association)

WELLINGTON, April 9. .Salary cuts .’covered by .the National Expenditure Adjustment Bill are made retrospective’ To April Ist. The f'olowing reductions apply to Mini-stem of the Grown and Members of Parliament. (a) Ministers of the Crown 15 per cent. (b) Speaker of the House of Representatives lkd, per cent.

(c) Speaker of the Legislative Council and Chairman of Committees of both Houses 10 per cent. (d) Other Members of Parliament

10 per cent. Salaries of other members of the Civil Service are reduced 011 the- following basis: (a) Where the 'salary is less than £225, five per cent.

(b) Where the salary is between £225 and £750 ten per cent. (b) Where the salary is over £720 12} per cent. Subsidies payable by tbe State to Local Authorities, Hospital Boards etc, are reduced by ten per cent,

Salary increments, according to the Public* Service classification are cancelled.

Power is given for granting relief in cases of hardship. Reduction® in pensions payable out of the Consolidated Fund constitute an important feature. Old age pensions are reduced from an annual value of £45 10s to £4O 19s, diminished by one pound for every complete pound of income in excess of £39.

Married couples both in receipt- of old age -pensions are entitled- to pensions which shall not make- their total incomes exceed £l2l. Previously the limit was £143. In the case of widows pensions, the allowance for each child is reduced from 10s to 9s, and the maximum payable is reduced from £4 to £3- 12s. The amount on which miners pensions are based is reduced from 25s per week to 22s 6d and 1 in the case of married men and widows, the allowance for each child is reduced from 10s to 9s. Maximum benefits are reduced from £4 5s to £3 16s- 6d.

South African veterans in receipt of a special pension of £l3 are still entitled to that allowance, in addition to the old age pension, but the aggregate receipts from all sources must not exceed £79 19, compared with £97 lCte at present. War pensions except in case's of widow and child or widowed mother of n soldier w guardians of soldiers ehiF drcn nre reduced, by 17i per cent.

The maximum value of the economic pension payable to disabled soldiers is reduced from 90s to 21s a week. Other economic pensions are reduced. The maximum payable as family allowances is reduced to £3 ss. No person in receipt of a pension under the Pensions Act, 1926, other than old age pension shall henceforward be eligible to receive a pension under the War Pensions Act, but persons in receipt of war pension and any other pension, may elect to receive the larger, subject to the provisions of the Bill.

Rates of interest under mortgages of property and rents are reduced twenty per cent, to come into force a s from Ist. April. The right of appeal to the Court is given to a mortgagee or landlord. Provision is made for the imposition of a stamp duty of 10 per cent, on receipts of interest from Government, and local body securities, and from debentures issued lay companies nr other corporations. Local authorities and companies will receive a net duty on interest from tiieir securities after a deduction of five per cent for administration expenses. The maximum rates of interest on deoosits payable by Savings Barms, building and investment societies and trading companies, may he fixed by Order-In-Council.