PENSIONS AND ALLOWANCES.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 June 1917, Page 3

PENSIONS AND ALLOWANCES.

THE BRITISH CONDITIONS. CONTRASTED WITH NEW ZEALAND'S. _ At tiie meeting of the Second Division League at New Plymouth on Thursday evening, Mr. T. C. List contracted the treatment of soldiers at Home in respect of pensions and allowances with the trentment accorded men bv the NewZealand Government.

The main basic principles of tho revised British pensions scheme were three, viz:—

(1) Placing incapacitated men and tnoir dependents and the dependents oi soldiers killed in action or died from other causes in ns good a position as they were in before the war, and in cases where this cannot be done in as near that position as possible. (2) Inducing incapacitated men and dependents to improve their condition without penalising them for doing so. (3) Care of incapacitated men and dependents.

The first .principle laid down in the English Act was that all incapacitated soldiers should receive a minimum flat pension rate for stated injuries received. In New 'Zealand they managed things differently. Here they fixed a maximum pension of 35a a week for a tbtally disabled soldier, leaving it to the Pensions Board to determine what lesser amounts should be granted in lesser degrees of disablement. In Great Britain to-day soldiers receive stipulated minimum pensions corresponding to the degree of disablement. He enumerated the degrees from 100 per cent, in the ease of total disablement to the last degree (20 per cent.), loss of two fingers as follows? PLAT MINIMUM PENSIONS AND ALLOWANCES. First Degree '(100 per cent): (a) Loss of two or more limbs, (b) loss of an arm and an eye, (c) loss of a leg and •an eye, (d) losa of both hands or of all fingers and thumbs, (f) total loss of sight, (g) total paralysis, (h) lunacy, (i) wounds, injuries, or disease resulting 'in disabled man being permanently bedridden, (j) wounds or injuries to internal, thoracis or abdominal organs, involving total permanent disabling effects, (k) wounds or injuries to head or brain involving total permanent disabling effects, or Jacksonian epilepsy, (1) very severe facial disfigurement, (ni) advanced cases of iu«urable disease—in 'all such cases a minimum of 27s 6d per week.

'.Second Degree (80 per eent): (a) Loss of both feet, (b) amputation of leg at hip or right arm at shoulder joint, (e) severe facial disfigurement, (d) total loss of speech—in all such gases' a minimum of 22s per week.

Third Degree (70 per cent.): (a) Short thigh, amputation of leg with pelvic band, ov of left arm at shoulder joint, or of right arm above or through elbow, (b) total deafness—in such cases a miniirrnim of 19s 3d per week. Fourth Degree (-60 per cent): Amputation of leg above knee (other than third degree) and through knee or of #>ft arm above or through elbow, or of right arm below eifiow—in cases a minimum of 16s Cd per week. Fifth Degree (50 per cent): (a) Amputation of leg below knee (including Byrnes' and Chopart's amputation), or of left arm below elbow, (b) loss of vision of one eye—in such cases a minimum of 13s 9d per week.

'Sixth Degree (40 per cent.): Loss of thumb or of four fingers of right handin such cases a minimum of -lis per week.

Seventh Degree (30 per cent): Loss of thumb or of four fingers of left hand, or of three fingers of right hand—in such cases a minimum of -8s 3d per week. Eighth Degree (20 per cent.): Loss of two fingers of either hand—a minimum of 5s M per week. In the case of left-handed men, certified to be such, the compensation in respect of the left arm, hand, etc., is as for a right arm, hand, etc., and vice versa.

The rates for disabled n.c.o.'s are higher, varying from 2s «d in the lowest to 4s fld per week in the highest class. In the case of injuries not shown in the above degrees of disablement and in ,the case of disease, the pension is assessed at the degree in the schedule which is held most closely to represent the disablement corresponding to the injury or disease. ADDITIONAL BENEFITS, In addition a disabled man in Groat Britain might be granted during the continuance of his pension a further allowance for each child nnder the age of 10, but the allowance might be continued beyond the age of 16 in the case of apprentices receiving not more than nominal wages, or of children being educated at secondary, schools, technical institutes or universities. In New Zealand no such provision applied.' Here the age limit for pension in respect of a child is 18 years for male children and 17 years for female children, except in cases of mental or bodily infirmity. A disabled man in Great Britain 'might be granted during the currency of Ms pension a further allowance for each child under the age of 10 nt such proportion of the following weekly rates as correspond to the degree of disablement at which the man was assessed for pension:—First «'hild ss, second child 4s 2d, third child 3s 4d, for each additional child 2s Cd. A STRIKING FEATURE. But the most striking feature of the British scheme was the creation of alternative provisions for incapacitated soldiers. Article 3 of the Boyal Warrant provided: "Any disabled man pensioned under this warrant mho makes application and shows that the minimum pension with children's allowances (if any) which he has been granted, together with the average earnings (if any) of which he remains capable, are less than his pre-war earnings, may be granted, temporarily or permanently, in lieu of the minimum pension and children's allowances, a pension which, together 'with the average earnings (if any) of which he is judged capable, shall not exceed his prewar earnings up to a maximum of 50s a week, plus half of any pre-war earnings lietween 50s and 100s a week." Thus, the maximum pension which a, totally disabled man may receive under the British scheme was £3 15s per week, as compared with £1 15s a week which a totally disabled New Zealand soldier is entitled to. In Great Britain a, man unable to manage for himself was allowed up to £1 per week for the services tA an attendant. In Not. Zealand the

Pensions Board in cases of total disablement might, in its discretion, grant a further pension not exceeding 10s per week. Thus it would be seen that a totally disabled man at Home might receive £4 15s a week in pension and allowance, .whereas in New Zealand a soldier, similarly situated, could only receive £2 5s a week, or'less than half the British rate. ALTERNATE PENSIONS. But the British scheme went further. Allowances were given to men to bring tli is pension up to those for the higher degree of disablement and to enable them to help their wives and families, if they had to live apart from them during tho period of sanatoria, hospitals, etc., or training at a technical school or otherwise All fees involved were paid by the State, and, in the case of training, a sum at the rate of 5s a week was given to the man for the period of its duration as a bonus. In Now Zealand the Government had recently decided to grant an allowance of £1 a week to returned soldiers, in addition to pensions, during free training at technical schools. The British Government were even more considerate. In cases where disablement was under the 20 per cent, standard, a man who went into camp and then was rejected was given a gratuity up to £2OO, whereas in New Zealand a man similarly situated got no consideration at all. There was an important feature that New Zealand legislators should take into account . In New .Zealand the Penßions Board settled the amount of a pension, which was periodically reviewed and could be diminished or withdrawn or increased. In Britain when a man's disablement reached its final stage, the permanent pension then awarded could not be altered to his disadvantage. Speaking in this connection in the House of Commons the Minister of Pensions declared that they would rather increase a man's pension because he was at work. Haw different a spirit to that obtaining in Now Zealand, where an injured man was penalised for working, the effect tonding to create loafing. As a member of the Patriotic sub-committee dealing with the welfare of returned wounded soldiers, ho was -brought into contact with the callous and nriscrablo way in which the 'Board often treated the returned men, and ho gave particulars of two cases in point. In England there was no distinction made between married or single men, except that in the case of the minimum flat pension children received specified allowances and wives and dependents were provided for in cases of treatment and training. Thus a single man disabled might receive the same maximum as a married man disabled—£3 15s a week, plus other allowances. This was new to New Zealand and perhaps afforded ground for debate, but the position the British Minister of Pensions took up was what a man who had no children might get them, and that the State should give a pension for service rendered and not on account of the number of children a man might have. After a full discussion (reported in yesterday's News) the following resolution was -unanimously adopted:—"That this meeting calls upon the Government to bring in an amended scale of pensions and allowances for dependents at least equal to the pensions and allowances operating in Great 'Britain"