PENSIONS PROBLEMS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1014, 3 July 1930, Page 9

PENSIONS PROBLEMS

ACT NOT TO BE AMENDED THIS SESSION QUESTIONS IN HOUSE THE SUE'S Parliamentary Reporter PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Wed. It is not the intention of the Government this session to introduce legislation amending the Pensions Act. according to answers given by the .Minister in Charge of Pensions, the Hon. J. G. Cobbe, to questions today. Mr. J. A. Nash (Reform—Palmerston) asked the Minister whether he would have the existing law amended this session to make provision for the Pensions Act to be extended to the families of mental patients released on probation. Mr. Cobbe replied that the present law provided for the payment of a widow’s pension to those wives whoso husbands were detained in an institution under the Mental Defectives Act, 1911, but it was not proposed to extend this provision to the families of those patients released on probation from a mental hospital. OLD AGE PENSIONS Mr. W. E. Parry (Labour—Auckland Central) asked the Minister: (1) Whether the Government intended this session to amend the Old Age Pensions Act with the object of raising the present pension to at least £1 5s a week? (2) Whether the Government would remove the restrictions now operating unfairly against old aged people who were unable to prove the j date of their birth and who were obviously over the pensionable age? (3) Whether the pension for the blind would be increased? (4) Whether he would reduce the period of residence in New Zealand for old people to qualify for the pension from 25 years to 20 years or less? Mr. Cobbe replied: “It is not intended to introduce amending legislation in the directions indicated this session. There are no restrictions against old aged people who are unable to prove the date of their birth. Magistrates are not bound by the law to insist on corroborative evidence with regard to age, and in actual practice dispense with documentary proof in many cases.” SUPERANNUATION

Mr, Parry asked the Minister in Charge of the Public Service Superannuation Department whether he would, this session, make provision for superannuation to be extended to the wives of superannuated Civil servants in the event of the husband dying before his wife?

Mr. Donald replied that the question would be referred to a commission appointed by the Government to inquire into the condition of the State Superannuation Funds.