RETIRING PENSIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 167, 5 October 1927, Page 16

RETIRING PENSIONS

POLITICIANS* PEEP INTO FUTURE ONE BIG SCHEME ~ (THE SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. The perpetual fear of the civil servant that the Government will remove his cost-of-living bonus is reflected in the,remarks of Mr. T. M. Wilford in the House of Representatives this evening, when the Public Service Superannuation Amendment Bill was called lip for second reading. “Just as most of the unemployment trouble is caused by fear of unemployment,” he said, “so is the fear always in the mind of the public servant tha.t his cost-of-living bonus will be taken away from him.” Mr. Wilford’s plea was for the State to maka this bonus a permanent institution, and to cease having the civil servant on the string for six "months of each y€;ar, during which time he was in fear lest he should not receive this bonus. In looking ahead, Mr. H. E. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, sees the day when the superannuation scheme, National Provident Fund, old-age pension and possibly an invalidity pension, will have to be combined into one big pensions scheme under which the State will show its readiness to recognise the time of retirement from active work of old people. This would obviate the necessity of old people being left to live out the remainder of their days in poverty and want. Our superannuation schemes were merely a recognition of the duty which the country owed to those who had accomplished a service to society. Mr. W. A. Veitch complained that, as a result of the edict that civil servants retire at 60 years of age, or after 4) years’ service, a great financial burden had been placed upon the authorities, and many State departments had been compelled to contribute large sums toward the extra cost of these compulsory retirements. It was a flagrant absurdity. He asked for an investigation to show the actual cost to the State of this retirement scheme. Mr. E. J. Howard’s complaint was that while men were walking the streets others, who were retired on superannuation, were filling jobs at a cheap rate of wages. He anticipated the day, about a-quarter of a century hence, when half our citizens over a certain, age would be living at the expense of the other half. The Hon. W. Nosworthy, Minister of External Affairs, who previously had explained that the Bill was purely a consolidation, said that the special departmental committee had not completed its investigation on superannuation matters, but when it presented its report—this session A*’next session—the Bill would have to be introduced to amend the Act. He too felt that the day was coming when the superannuation scheme would require a thorough overhaul, but this would require careful revision'.