BETTER PENSIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 November 1920, Page 5

BETTER PENSIONS.

SEVERAL INCREASES PROPOSED. PROVISION IN FINANCE BILL. ('By Wire.—Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, Last Night. There are various amendments contained in the Finance Bill in the law referring to civil pensions in regard to the definition of the income of an applicant. Any pension, under the MinersPhthisis Act is excluded. Pensions payable under the War Pensions Act, 1915, and any moneys received by the applicant not exceeding £39 in any year are excluded from the definition." In cases where an applicant has received payments under two or more of the exemptions, the exemptions are to be alternative and not cumulative, but the applicant shall be entitled to the exemption whicli will allow the greater amount of pension.

In regard to old age pensions the limitation of yearly income is extended from £BO to £7B. In the present Act the net value of a claimant's accumulated property is set down at £2OO, and the Bill provides for £390. The amount of pension is increased from £2i> a year to £39. The deductions for furniture and personal effects in'section 10 of the Bill are increased from £340 to £390. Maori war pensions are increased from '£3G to £49. The miners' plii'nisis pension is increased from 30s to 35s a week to married men, and to the unmarried from £1 to 255. Absence from New Zealand is not to involve forfeiture of old age pensions, widows' pension, miners' pension, or military pension, provided that it is for a period not exceeding two years.