BENEFITS AND COSTS.

A typical schedule of a liberal pension and life assurance scheme is the following, in which members are divided into nine classes according to earnings, with assurance, pension and other benefits, and members' contributions in accordance : .-Annutil Pen=' LifeAsstuance,_:sign front age) and Total and ''65 for each year

Member's Weeklyi

Annual Permanent Disa-- -of service as a Contribm Class Earnings. bility Benefit ' - contributor. tion.

A. £130 & under

.S100. £1 01_ 0.

- 9d.

B 131-250 200 .2 0 0 1/6

C

251-350 300 3 0 0 2/3 D 351-450

. 400. 5 0 0

3/9

E

451-550 500 7 0 0 5/3

F

551-650

600 8 0 0 6/-

C4 H 651-750

751;950 700 10 0 0 850 17:0 0

_ 7/0 i--

17;-

J Over £950

1,000 20 "o 0

20/-

In this scheme; as in many 'others, the employer's cost is about-equal to that of the employees who join, with the added fact that the employer buys, pensions for past service for members at one half the rate for future service. That is to say, an employee joining the scheme who has been in the employer's-service for twenty years is given ten years' credit, which will be added to the pension he helps to provide with his own contributions between the . - date -of - the sehemels inauguration and- the time for retirement at age sixty-five.

These fehemes have the great merit of ,extr,e-me can be.aajusted to the particular circumstances of any .hisiness enterprise." Optional retirement -dates, with pension payments modified accordingly, are usually provided, while arrangements ean be made for the payment of part of the pension to a widow in the event of the pensioner's prior death, thus constituting the pension a joint -survivorship annuity. Marriage dowries for women members are often provided, while in most Cases the total amount of the:life assurance is paid direct to the member in the event of total or permanent disability before sixty. This payment is made.: in forty to sixty monthly instalments with interest, according to the amount of the assurance.