OED AGE PENSIONS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3704, 25 August 1906, Page 2

OED AGE PENSIONS.

On March 31st the number of pensioners on the roll stood at 12,582, being 812 more than at the close of the previous year, and 194 less than on March 31st, 1902, Of these pensioners 667 were Maoris. Eighty-two per cent. (10.398) of the pensioners on the roll are in receipt of the full pensions. Of the four chief centres of population Christchurch has the highest number of pensioners—namely, 1440, as against 1210 in Auckland, mi in Dunedin, and 596 in Wellington. The male pensioners exceed the female by 1930, although in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, the females are in the ascendant. The age which claims the highest number of pensioners is 72, 1168 Europeans being at that age. Age 73 follows next with 1112. There are seventy-six European pensioners of the age of 90 and over, of which number seven are 96 and over, while three are centenarians. 1 ‘ A factor which is to be considered as having some bearing on the increase, which muct now be looked for each year, ’ ’ says the report, ‘ 1 is the gradual wearing-away of the disinclination on the part of a number of people to apply for the old age pension. There is abundant evidence that the pension is regarded almost universally in the light the framer of the act intended it should be—namely, as a right; and, further, people who did not consider the ElB was worth applying for are now finding that E 26 is a very useful thing to be possessed of in their declining years. During the year 2073 new claims for pensions were established. The amount paid by way of pension during the year was L 254.367. The cost per head of population in 1905 was 4s 6d; last year it was 5s Bd. The over payments recovered since the act came into force amount to L 5538. The cost of administration last year was E 4758, in the previous year L 3936. The percentage of the total cost of administering the gross payments of E 1,428,372 is 1.67 per cent.