COST OF PENSIONS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3673, 2 August 1927, Page 2

COST OF PENSIONS.

Last year pensions cost the State £2,523,229. This is not the full bill, as the State’s expenditure as an employer in subsidising superannuation schemes is not included (says the Post). In considering the acount, howevei’, we should exclude War, Maori War, Boer War, and epidemic pensions. These will gradually grow less, and they are not, moreover, a fixed part of our pension system. Yet if we consider only the economic or social pensions the charge is high enough to he a burden upon the community, and it is increasing each year. There is talk now of adding to it by a system of pensions for invalids. The danger that we see in this constant expansion—either by increasing pensions or by making new pensioners —is that there is no means of applying a check which will make merits as well as necessity a good ground for awarding an annuity. While necessity is the only test the system cannot be expanded without injury to the community in the discouragement of thrift. Contributory pensions may initially be more expensive to the State, hut ultimately a system which encourages provision for age and sickness must be more economical than one which makes the provident person give so that some who may have been improvident may receive.