WAR PENSIONS ACT.

Shannon News, 9 October 1923, Page 2

WAR PENSIONS ACT.

EFFECT OF AMENDED ACT. - /

A communication has been received by the secretary of the Palmerston North branch of the Returned Soldiers ’ Association, Mr. W. Rutherfurd, from the general secretary of the Association, enumerating the advantages gained by soldier pensioners through recent amendments to the Act.

It is advised in the letter that pensioners should call on the secretary to state a case. One clause states that in cases where there is considered to be a.reasonable doubt, the decision should be given for the soldier both by the Pensions Board and Pensions Appeal Board. This was in regard to the presumption of attributability of death or disablement to war service.

In the new Act, power is given the Pensions Board to grant what is described as an economic or supplementary pension of £1 10s, or more a week, this‘concession referring to those rated from 50 per cent, to 90 per cent, disability. The thigh amputee, who hitherto received a pension of 85 per cent, now receives a 5 per cent, increase,. while provision’is made for totally incapacitated soldiers, wives, mothers and

children, all of whom are entitled to consideration —according to circumstances —under the new conditions.

The seven years limit as the duration of a pension to widows is also abolished.