OLD AGE PENSIONS.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43353, 23 July 1908, Page 2

OLD AGE PENSIONS.

It may interest the old age pensioners and those seeking the pension to learn that a mistaken notion exists in some parts of the Dominion that the Old Age Pensions Department refuses to allow claims to go before a magistrate until documentary evidence of age is forthcoming. This is not so. When an applicant has no evidence of age when he lodges his claim every known official source of information is searched for any proof that may exist. If this fails the claim is submitted with any evidence that the applicant can produce. Thu magistrate has the power, if he so chooses, to accept this, and dispense with corroborative evidence. If the magistrate refuses the claim for want of proof of age the decision is final, and the Department has no jurisdiction in the matter. Doubt also seems to exist as to the effect the operation of the old age pension scheme has on the membership of friendly societies. The registrar, in his annual report says : Any benefit derived from a friendly society by way of sick or funeral allowance is exempted, not only by law, but in actual practice, from being applied to reduce the amount of pension payable to any claimant.