PROPOSED COST

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20500, 17 May 1938, Page 6

PROPOSED COST

800IAL BECURITV PLAN EFFECT ON PRIVATE PENSIONS (Special to Times.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday Further detail* of the Government'a superannuation and national health schemes were given by the Minister of Finance, the Hon. W. Nash, in his address at Lower Ilutt last night. Mr Nash said £3.000,000 had been allocated to meet the initial cost of the general practitioner service. He hoped that when the scheme launched the doctors would co-opcr-ate to the full* The procedure with regard to sickness benefits had not yet been fully determined, but £1,000,000 had been set apart for the purpose. Disability was something difficult to define, but its effect was to prevent the individual from playing his part in the economic life of the community. The Government was trying to find a way of providing against it, and had allocated £500,000. “Levied On All” The total annual cost of the scheme was estimated at £15,000.000, and the cost of benefits other than superannuation was placed at £9,203,000. The social security tax of is in the pound on income would be levied upon all, but everybody’s widow and child would benefit and everybody would be entitled to receive the general practitioner service. "The tax is 4d in the pound more than the present employment tax." continued Mr Nash. "There has been some criticism, but I have not yet met the man or woman in normal employment who objected to paying Is in the pound to help the unemployed. If they were willing then, why should there be the shadow of an objection to paying now when there are all these safeguarding provisions, which include something for all emergencies?” The cost of the superannuation provisions was placed at £6.200,000, of which the Consolidated Fund would provide £3,900,000. If a person qualified by ago for the superannuation allowance under the scheme was receiving some income from a superannuation fund to which he had contributed, he would not on that account he debarred from benefiting.