Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 1938. HEALTH AND SUPERANNUATION COSTS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 April 1938, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 1938. HEALTH AND SUPERANNUATION COSTS.

great deal of valuable new light is thrown upon the Government’s national health and superannuation proposals in the actuarial report presented yesterday by Mr G. 11. Maddex to the Parliamentary Committee which is examining these proposals. While' it is highly informative, the report does not and could not provide a complete picture of the projected scheme in working operation. As Mr Maddex himself pointed out some of the questions arising directly out of the facts and figures he presented did not come within the scope, of his own survey and are' a matter for economists. It must be hoped, for example, that authoritative, evidence on the subject of the probable growth of the national income will be obtained by tlie committee. At the most direct view, however, and with the true magnitude and relative importance of some highly important details still to be determined, or to be estimated authoritatively, Mr Maddex’s report presents facts of arresting interest. In the first full year of their operation, for instance, the Government’s proposals are estimated to involve a total outlay of £17,850,000, this being an increase of £8,850,000 on the outlay that would be incurred in the same year under' the existing scale of pension and sustenance benefits. The total outlay, Mr Maddex estimates, will rise to about £20,400,000 after five years and to £21,900,000 after ten years. As the scheme is planned, the huge outlay proposed would be met by drawing (in the first full year) an increased amount of £2,500,000, or £9,850,000 in. all, from the Consolidated Fund; £7,500,000 from the tax of one shilling in the pound on wages and income, and £500,000 from the registration levy of £1 per annum. On the expenditure side, it is apparently intended that the sum of £3,000,0(11) per annum allocated to health services should be additional to the present State and local body expenditure on hospitals and charitable aid. The position, of the taxpayer thus would be that he woidd continue to contribute as at present to the cost of pensions, hospitals and charitable aid, and to pay in addition one shilling in the pound on all wages and income, with in the case of all men over twenty years of age £1 a year in registration levy. On top of this, taxpayers would have to provide, in. the first full year of the operation of the p'eheme, an. additional sum of £2,500,000 — the extra contribution, needed from the Consolidated Fund. In considering what the imposition, of. continuing burdens on. this scale would mean, many weighty facts have io he taken into account, amongst them the progressive increase in the numbers of people of pension, or superannuation age and eligibility relatively to the total numbers of the population. It must, suffice at the moment, however, Io look at a couple of leading and outstanding features of the projected scheme. One vital consideration is that, the huge burdens proposed would he magnified enormously, as they bear on the individual taxpayer, if the national income, instead of expanding progressively from its present high level, should decline., or even remain stationary. In comparatively recent, experience we have seen the estimated national income decline from a preceding peak of 130 or 140 millions to'9o millions. It is now estimated tentatively at some 150 millions, following upon an increase in. export returns last year of eleven millions as compared with the preceding year and. of some 21. millions in two years. The possibility of a decline in export returns which would heavily diminish the national, income for the time being, and. increase enormously the relative magnitude of the burdens now contemplated, is by no means remote. In the circumstances, Mr Madde.x’s statement that three shillings in the pound of the national income will be needed in fen years to meet the costs of the scheme is somewhat staggering.

It demands the* attention of all citizens, also, that so far as superannuation is concerned, the tremendous levy it is now proposed to. impose is intended to provide superannuation benefits only for a section of the community. It is true that the relative proportion of the benefiting section is likely to increase rapidly and greatly. That, however, in conjunction with other facts of the position, suggests that it would be just, and wise to amend the scheme now projected by converting it into a genuinely universal scheme of national superannuation, taking reasonable account of the national, resources —a scheme to which all members of the community would contribute in accordance with their means and from which all would derive benefit.