BRITAIN'S WIDOWS

Hokitika Guardian, 20 September 1933, Page 8

BRITAIN'S WIDOWS

STEADY RE-MARRIAGE RATE.

BIG SAVINGS IN PENSIONS

Widows in Britain are still wonderful. At least men seem t-o think so, for widows are re-marrying at a steady rate. Official figures show that 130' of them are marrying every week. They are making husbands happy.

The widows are also doing their best to help the C'han'ca’lor of the Exchequer to ease the burden on national finance, for they are struck off the widows’ pension roll on re-marriage. Attractive widows save the Government £150,000 a year. -And tiiere are 6500 women deceiving .pensions trying marriage again every year.

The amount -of a widow’s pension is 10s per week. Many of the widows have children, but they ojnly cease to draw their own weekly 10s on i'e-niarriage Their children's allowance co n tin u o s .

Perhaps it is this weekly dowry that makes widows more attractive. Per haps it is the fact that they- ofien have a home already furnished for. a new husband. Perhaps it is—well, anyway, the Government likes these ‘‘merry widows.’’ They save money. In some cases re-marriage involves the widows in -a distinct financial Sacri-' fice, especially where the new husband is earning a relatively low wage. In such cases the widow has perhaps been out at work herself, and her income from this source, coupled with the 10s a week pension she has been drawing from the Government, has enabled her to live a comfortable life in her small home. On taking her new husband, however, she frequently ha s to give up | nop only her pension, but her own work and wages. The figures show in fact that most of the w r omen prefer to make thei,r new .married (life a full-time job. A n d as many of the widows marry widowers wi-h children of their own who need looking after, a decision to stay “at home often becomes essentia].