SOLDIERS' FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.

Otaki Mail, Volume 26, 20 June 1919, Page 4

SOLDIERS' FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.

RETROSPECTIVE REGULATIONS EXPLAINED. The Soldiers’ Financial Assistance Board under its original regulations could only extend assistance to the soldier or his dependents during his service, but amendments have been made in the regulations enabling the board to cover cases which formerly could not be dealt with, as grants could not be made retrospective for more than three, months before the date of the application. Though great publicity was given to the scheme, hundreds of dependents of soldiers have undergone considerable financial hardship as a result of the soldier’s 'military service, and the Board had no power to meet their claims. In many cases, the omission to put ill a claim at the proper time was only detected on the return of the soldier, and the recent, arrival of many men of the Main Body' and earlier reinforcements revealed the fact that some were not aware that they could have obtained grants front the Financial Assistance Board to meet the recurrent obligations which they were not able to finance out of their pay and

allowances. These obligations are mainly in respect of mortgages on property and life, insurances, with war loading. There wore ninny cases of hardship which the Board would have alleviated had it possessed power to make, retrospective grants. The new regulations, give it this power, even though the soldier hns received his discharge. . The new arrangement provides that the soldier already in New Zealand must apply'within three months of the date of gazetting the regulations, viz., Fith .Time, ID IS); and in the«ensc of a man si-ill to lay returned, within three uii'inths of the date of their arrival in Now Zealand .In approved cases, the

Soldiers’ Financial Assistance Board may continue its grants for six months

alter the soldier’s discharge. Discharged men may- thus submit, an application for assistance, which will lie dealt with an exactly the same lines as though it had been made in the ordinary course during the period of (lie soldier’s service, namely, with a view to remove undue financial hardship by reason of military service. If an application had previously been declined only on the ground of the Board’s lack of jurisdiction, it should now be renewed. A typical case to which the new retrospective regulations will operate to give relief is that, for instance, in which a business has been carried on during the soldier’s absence mid where a profit and loss account can lie submitted o’r an income or expenditure account in the cases of farms and properties. A lump sum payable direct to the payees (by way of a refund, where the disbursements have been made privately or in some cases borrowed) will, no doubt, meet such a case and remove undue hardship caused by the soldier’s absence on military ser-

There is one class of application which Ihe Board will be obliged to decline: It has received many inquiries from men who have for some time been settled again in civilian life. They are under the impression that the extended regulations are intended to assist them with their surrent obligations. This, of course, is not the case. The extended regulations are not intended to apply to applicants who have already- received financial assistance, and only under exceptional circumstances will such cases bo re-opened. Nor do the new regulations extend the Board’s power to make grants-which under the old regulations (apart from the time limit) it would not have been considered.

Many single men without dependents have approached the Board for a retrospective grant on account of life insurance. in such cases, however, the Beard would not have authorised a "grant in the first place, seeing that the small recurring obligations were met from the soldier's allotment withoflt causing any undue hardship whatever.

The regulations just adopted will enable rfie Board to meet a number of cases of hardship due to the failure of soldiers or their dependents to make application within the specified time, but this re-opening of the scheme cannot tie indefinitely prolonged. Consequently- the Board directs special attention to the time limit for applications mentioned earlier in this article.