Old Age Pension Changes
Sir John Simon's proposals for meeting the needs of old-age pensioners will do something to alleviate present hardships by methods involving the minimum of concession on the part of the Exchequer. Sir John has clearly been moved by two considerations to which he has given equal weight—the scarcely questioned necessity of making some adjustment of pensions to the rising cost of living, and the difficulty of imposing new burdens on the Treasury. He rejects the idea of a fiat-rate addition to the pension on the ground of expense, but offers supplementary allowances to those who can prove need, involving a means test, in which " household " means alone will be taken into account. Doc supplementary allowance will not come under the Poor Law. but will be granted by a body analogous to the Unemploy- ment Assistance Board, and will be paid through the Pos Office. The Treasury is free to recover the amount from the local authorities ; and in any case the only addition tc the public purse (State or local) is that arising from more applications through the removal of Poor Law stigma, and the difference between household and means tests. Sir John's plan to lower the pension age for insured women from 65 to 6o, and to admit to pension at the age of 6o the wives of contributory pensioners of 65, will cost eight millions, rising to ten millions in ten years' time, but at first the expense will be entirely met by increasing the weeklr contributions of employers and employees.
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