Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1938. SOCIAL SECURITY AND EQUITY.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 October 1938, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1938. SOCIAL SECURITY AND EQUITY.

t DEFENDERS of the Social Security Act have taken in general a high tone with those who have ventured to criticise that measure. They have brushed aside impatiently and with a rather obvious unwillingness to come to grips with realities, any suggestions that the financial basis on which the scheme rests is unsound and insecure and that burdens are entailed which the people of this country would find it by no means easy to bear. Much has been made, too, of the contention that a large proportion of the population will ben'efit under the provisions of the Act and that those who will not are fortunate to be so well off. Phis, however, is a view of the matter in which some highly important and pertinent considerations are, conveniently or otherwise, ignored. Not the least of these considerations is that of the extent to which people who make’ some modest provision for their old age will be penalised under the Social Security Act as it stands. In the case of either an individual or a married couple, there is a permitted income of £1 a week which does not disqualify for the age benefit, but any income over and above £1 a week will correspondingly reduce that benefit. Except in the case of an individual able to save enough to yield an income of more than £2 10s a week, or in that of a married couple able to save enough to give them an income at the age of sixty of more than £4 a week, there is thus a positive discouragement of any attempt to save more than £1 a week. The effort and sacrifice entailed in saving for an income of anything between £1 a week and the permitted total- of income and age benefit would give nothing more than might be obtained for the asking from the State with the Social Security Act in operation. It, should Wadded that the age benefit is to be reduced by £1 a year for every £lO of net accumulated property possessed by the applicant. An applicant ’s home and furniture, any interest in land or mortgages, or in an annuity, or any insurance policy, and, in addition, the sum. of £5OO are not to count as accumulated property, but any income derived from such property will be taken into account as other income. i The total effect-of these provisions evidently must be to discourage individual saving of a thoroughly desirable kind. It can hardly be suggested that there is any justice in cutting down the pension of an individual or a married couple by £1 a week because they have saved independently enough to yield an income of £2 a week, or of withholding a pension altogether if private savings yield an income in the case of an individual of £2 10s per week, or of £4 a week in the ease of a married couple. That, people of these modest means should be denied any superannuation benefit, in return for the contributions which will be demanded of them, other than £lO a year, increasing at the rate of £2 10s a year, plainly is an imposition. STILL ANOTHER SETBACK. WITHIN the last week or two, hopes have again been raised of some approach to a settlement in Spain. Particularly since Mr Chamberlain and Herr Hitler made their agreement at Munich, it has seemed possible that arrangements might be made to withdraw foreign qombatants from Spain and so to open the way to a termination of the desolating so-called civil war which has been in progress for more than two years. Whatever hopes to this kind were, or seemed to have been, raised are now dashed to the ground. Following on the decision of the Republicans to dismiss foreign, volunteers’ from 'their ranks, there was some general talk of an impending withdrawal of Italian legionaries—in other words the fairly numerous and well-equipped Italian army which is operating on behalf of General Franco. According to late cablegrams bn the subject, •however, only ten thousand Italians out of an admitted force of thirty thousand are to be withdrawn. well-grounded information from other sources is to the effect that the actual strength of the Italian forces in Spain greatly exceeds thirty thousand. The withdrawal of ten thousand is stated, however, to be Mussolini’s “maximum concession,” and General Franco is demanding belligerent rights and cheerfully affirming that the war can end only with the unconditional surrender of the Republicans. It must be obvious to all beholders that if the Fascist Powers are allowed to pursue this programme to its conclusion, the injustice to Spain of acquiescing in her subjugation by foreign forces will be accompanied by the development of a further formidable threat to the security of the European democracies. Excluding any question of consideration for Spain, and of the right of her people to determine and control their own political destinies, it might still be thought incumbent on Britain and France to consider whether they are not being jockeyed stage by stage into a position in which their own security will be increasingly menaced. As a puppet State dominated by Italy and Germany, Spain would be a splendidly advantageous base froiv which to attack British and French sea communications in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. To date, the absurdly one-sided Non-Intervention Agreement has permitted the Fascist Powers to proceed almost unhindered with their invasion of Spain. The somewhat fatuous observation was cabled from London yesterday that “official circles are pleased with Italy’s intended withdrawal of ten thousand troops from Spain, but it is understood that a more substantial gesture is necessary before the Anglo-Italian pact can be implemented.” The only adjustment of the position in Spain with which Britain can afford to be content is one providing in the first instance for a complete withdrawal of foreign combatants on both sides. Until that minimum evidence has been afforded of an abandonment or abate-, nient by the Fascist Powers of their hostile designs, the implementing of the Anglo-Italian agreement would be an indication only, so far as Britain is concerned, of humiliating credulity.