THE PROBLEMS AND PERILS OF SOCIALISM. LETTERS TO A WORKING-
MIN.
IX.—OLD-AGE PENSIONS.--CUTTING-DOWN SCHEMES.
DEAR Mn.
The schemes for old-age pensions assume Many forms, but I will deal with what is apparently going to be the basis of the Government's plan, or at any rate the ultimate outcome of that plan, which is a non- contributory pension of 5s. a week for all men and women after sixty-five. The first point to be noted is the cost. Universal old-age pensions of 5s. weekly at sixty-five mean an expenditure of thirty millions a year by the State. It is hardly to be wondered at that all except avowed Socialists are appalled by such a figure. In order to avoid a scheme so ruinous as this, great efforts have been made to suggest plans by which the number of pensioners may, to begin with at least, be but down, while at the same time the universal and non-contributory principles may be maintained in appearance. Which of these cutting-down plans will be adopted by the Government is at present -unknown, but I should liketo draw your attention to one or two of them to show the tremendous difficulties in whiehlnen find themselves
when they try to adopt Socialism "on the cheap." One pro-
posal is that no one who now receives a pension of more than 5s. a week from the State should be eligible for the new old-age pensions. That is, Civil servants, whether employed by the central or local Government, policemen, soldiers, and sailors in receipt of pensions are to be struck off the list. A moment's reflection must show the extreme injustice of any
such scheme. The existing State pensioner will be able to
say, and with perfect truth :—" It is most unjust to deprive me of the 5s. a week which you are giving to persons who have spent their lives in private employment. My pension is in reality not a pension at all, but merely deferred pay. I made a bargain with the State to do work for it, and under that bargain a bit of my wages was to be kept back every week and given to me in the latter part of my life, and after my active work was done. The fact that my pension is really only part of my wages is aoknowledged by the Government themselves, for in most cases it is actually called deferred pay, and in all cases it is deferred pay and nothing else. Look at the cases of my brother Jack and me. He went into private employment and earned far better wages than I did, but had no promise of a pension. I took lower wages because I was to receive a pension after thirty years' service. Out of his higher wages Jack saved money and invested it in buying a small house, and he is now getting 213 a year with the money be saved. Yet, now we are both sixty-five, the State is going to give him 5s. a week, and going to give me nothing because I was fool enough to leave my savings in the bands of the State. It is a cruel injustice to me."
Another method of cutting down the pension-list is the suggestion that nobody is to have the money unless he or she applies for it every Monday morning in person at the local pension office. It is supposed that these disagreeable con- ditions will prevent persons in the middle and upper classes from claiming their money. They will not like, it is said, to stand in a line every Monday among their poorer neighbours waiting for their turn at the pension window. Now I venture to say that this plan for cutting down the pension-list will end in nothing. It might last for five or six years, but very soon people would begin to say that it was a monstrous shame to expose poor men to the discomfort of asking for their pensions in person, that many of them, old and feeble, had to stand out in the rain, and that therefore they ought to be allowed to send a substitute to fetch the money, or else the Government should send it to them by post. But the moment pensions collected by substitutes or sent out by the post are legalised practically everybody would claim his pension. Those who did not want the pensions for themselves would be certain to be besieged by charities and other institutions who would say : "If you will kindly assign to us your old-age pension, we will send a substitute to collect it for you, or receive it for you through the post." As no question of pride would come in here, we may be sure that such appeals would not be made to deaf ears.
Well-to-do men would no doubt explain that they did not take the old-age pension for themselves, but gave it to the parish church or the village hospital, or whatever their pet charity might be. I, for example, should certainly assign my pension to the parish rifle club, if parish rifle clubs are still allowed to exist when I am sixty-five. In any case, the pensions would all be drawn.
I must defer to next week an examination of yet another scheme for cutting down the list.
Yours very sincerely, J. Si. L. S.
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