The Daily News. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1900. OLD AGE PENSIONS IN GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 45, 24 February 1900, Page 3

The Daily News. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1900. OLD AGE PENSIONS IN GERMANY.

».... ■ : *~, Seeing that the New Zealand State Old Age Pensions scheme is likely to be amended in various respects, the following particulars of the German Law of 1900 on sickness and old age insurance will be of interest. This measure which, says Lloyd's Weekly A eios, is a somewhat lengthy and came into force on January Ist. It was passed in the spring of last year, and was signed by the German Emperor on July 13. It is, of course, an Imperial Law, applying to all parts of the Empire, and its great object is to bring about a more equal distribution in the different parts of Germany of the incidence of the cost of maintaining the pension system for old age and infirmity, as established by Imperial law. The former law ©f 1889, on the subject of workman's insurance, has now been repealed. Except in speci-ally-defined cases, compulsory insurance is insisted on. The new law confers on the Insurance institution the right to take over the care of the sick generally, without regard to what particular fund institution they may belong to. During the sick person's recovery those persons who were usually supported by him out of his earnings are to receive certain support within strict limits. Of course, before a person is entitled to an old age or infirmity pension he must have paid in a given number of weekly contributions, which contributions vary in value according to the social position of the person interested. In each instance the Empire grants a fixed minimum of £5. In future the pension may be made in advance in monthly instalments. With ( regard to the reckoning in of weeks of sickness there is a fresh provision made that the period of convalescence following on an illness is to be treated the same as the period of illness itself; and that the convalescent period after child-birth is to be counted in the same way up to six weeks after an ordinary confinement. An interesting provision of the new law is that insured female ! persons who marry are entitled to claim the half of their contributions, if the same have been made for at least 200 weeks before the marriage takes place. In the same way the right of a widow and of her children under 15 years of age, left by an insured person, to the reimbursement of half the contributions is made dependent upon amininum number of 200 contributory weeks. With regard to the maximum amount of the pensions, the former regulations are more or less the same, with the exception of one important alteration. And this is that in future the maximum point is only reached when the infirmity pension, together with an accident pension, and with other pensions, amounts to seven anda-half times the initial or fixed sum granted to each class of the infirmity pensions. In the present law the maximum is fixed for all pension holders alike at 415 marks (£2O 155.). It will be seen that the German law differs from that now operating in New Zealand in several important features, the most radical being the clause by which those not contributing to the insurance or pension fund are thereby debarred from benefiting under the 8 .■heme. The conditions under which insurance is paid or pensions are granted and the provisions generally are also more liberal and less restricted than is the case under our own law, though of course this liberality is made possible by the fact that premiums or contributions are levied. The working of this law will be watched closely and with great interest, and it will possibly largely influence English legislation on the question. Besides this it is also likely to have some effect in the way of amendments that may be made by our own legislators.