OUTSIDE WORK FOR PENSIONERS

Southland Times, Issue 24869, 8 October 1942, Page 3

OUTSIDE WORK FOR PENSIONERS

Sir,—l am bewildered by reports appearing in your paper. Every week I see Ministers of the Crown appealing for everyone to do some job to help the war effort. I also see requests by public and private bodies that soldiers should be allowed to work irrespective of their pensions. Yet we see, in a time of a desperate shortage of labour, soldiers who have gone through hell in hospitals and have served their country, being prosecuted and sent to gaol because they have earned a few pounds over a pension they are justly entitled to by service and sacrifice. As your correspondent, “8 Bar,” states, one man can earn as much as he likes if he is a civilian but if he happens to be a soldier pensioner and earns a few pounds over his pension he is a criminal unless he declares the amount he has earned. If he is on a full pension he is too ill to work, but if he is on a 50 per cent, pension, that is £2/10/- a week, and he earned £6, he would be allowed 10/- a week over and above his £2/10/-; the Government taking £3 a week of his earnings. A married man is allowed £1 a week economic pension for his wife and 10/for a child. As the position stands today, a soldier receives a pension for his disability, and if he does do a bit of work it is at a great disadvantage. If the Government increased the earning power of pensioners, they would do tneir best to help the country and themselves. This would do more to help the Government re-establish soldiers than any factories, as it would give every soldier some incentive to do something for himself without the fear of being penalized. Today the soldier on a pension has no hope of saving money to start himself in a small business or secure a small piece of land for himself. Even if his earnings over and above his pensions were taken over by the Pension Department and held as a reserve for the soldier until he saw some venture he could start in, he would at least have some inducement to better himself. FACTS.