|] - SOVIET UNION

Pensions star
at age of 60

LONDON

Old age pensions have been .a major issue in this election campaign and will
remain an issue until popular pressure com pels the federal government to increase

them t

By ANDREW ROTHSTEIN

The pensions law in the So-
viet Union covers old age, loss
of working capacity and loss
of breadwinner. It is non-con-

tributory so far-as the pen-
sioner is concerned.
The cost is borne by the

state out of funds provided by
which includes
the Social Insurance Fund,
formed by annual charges on
industry ‘in proportion to its
wages.

Old age pensions are paid to
men on reaching 60 and after
working not less than 25
years, and to women on reach-
ing 55, after 20 years work.

In some trades with difficult
working conditions (the list
of trades is agreed to by the
trade unions and the govern-
ment) the pension age is 55
men and 50 women.

Workers underground, — in
dangerous trades get pension
rights at 50 and after 20 years
work in the case of men; or a

for

for

45, after 15 years work for
women.

Women with five or more
children who have reached
eight years of age get their
pension at 50, and after 15

years work. People who have
not worked the full fixed per-
i pension proportion-
they have

1od get a

ate to the

worked.

years

Amount varies

The amount of the old age
pension varies according to.
wages.

Those paid up to 350 roubles

a month get 100 percent of
their earnings, with a mini-

mum of 300 roubles; those
earning 1,000 roubles a month

or more get 50 percent, the
minimum pension being 550

roubles a month and the max-
imum 1,200 roubles.

In the underground and dan-
trades the percentage
percent. The minimum
pension is 600 roubles, but the
maximum is the same.

Additional payments of 10
percent are made in each cate-
gory to men and women who

gerous

le BRR
IS vod

from privation. This is the first of a series ol
treat their senior citizens. Here Andrew Rothstein explains the

) the point where our senior citizens .can live out their
showing

articles

have worked longer than the
prescribed period, and to re-
tired pensioners with non-
able-bodied dependents. (10
percent extra is paid if there
is one-such dependent, 15 per-
cent if there are two or more).

But theres are few pension-
ers in the Soviet Union who
do not continue at their old
job-or in some lighter work
for some years after reaching
pensionable age.

Those earning
roubles a month inclusive are
paid 150 roubles a month on
account of their pension as
well, so long as they are em-
ployed. If their trade is in one
of the special categories men-

up to 1,000

tioned above, they draw 50
percent of the pension pay-

able, irrespective of earnings.

Disability payments

Pensions for disability ow-
ing to accident or industrial
disease vary according to three
groups — total, partial or
light disability — and accord-
ing to the previous occupation
of the pensioner (the .three
types applying to the old age
pensioners).

But the general principle is
100 percent of their previous
earnings up to a fixed figure
for the totally disabled (90
percent for the partially dis-
abled, 65 percent for the light-
ly disabled), and 10 percent
of earnings above that figure.

Minimum pensions in these
cases (they are higher in the
underground and dangerous
trades) range from 210 roubles
a month for those lightly dis-
abled to 360 roubles for the
totally disabled; while maxi-
mum pensions go up to 1,200
roubles as with the old age
pensioners.

For those suffering disabil-

ity through general sickness
the minimum and maximum

figures are somewhat lower.

In the first and second
groups any earnings do not
affect the amount of pension;
in the third, earnings with
pension must not exceed total

declining: years ‘secure
how other countries
Soviet pension scheme.

earnings before the pension
began (but not less than 50
percent of the pension is pay-
able).

Loss of breadwinners

Pension for loss of bread-
winner is paid to the follow-
ing dependents: children,
brothers, sisters and _ grand-
children under 16 (or under
18, if studying and whether

receiving grants or not); par-
ents, wife or husband, if they
are invalids or have reached
pensionable age; either parent
wife or ‘husband irrespective
of age and working capacity,
if fully occupied looking after
dependents under eight years
of age; and grandparents if
there is no other relative
whose duty it is by law to
maintain them.

«The amount of pensions is
calculated on the basis of the

late breadwinner’s earnings,
with the same percentage
scales as in the case of disabil-
ity pensions, the minimum
ranging from 160 roubles to

300 roubles and the maximum
from 400 roubles to 1,200
roubles.

What will it buy

It may be asked: “What can
the old age pensioner get with
his benefits?”

Direct comparison is not
possible. Rent will cost the
old age pensioner no more than
two or three percent of the
pension, even when he or she
is on the minimum, but cloth-
ing in the Soviet Union is
generally dearer than here.

Even those on minimum
pension are sure of an ade-
quate diet. But the trade un-
ions are expected to supple-
ment the state pension where
need exists, and they have
ample funds for this purpose.

Collective farms run their
own pension schemes, since
their members are not wage-
earners but joint owners.

Free Paul

says British parley —

Representatives of 1,750,000 Londoners last week ‘urged the
U.S. government to let Paul Robeson have a passport so that

he could again sing in Europe.

The “Let Paul Robeson Sing”’ ;
Will Griffiths, Labor MP, and addressed by two other Labor

MP’s, Emrys Hughes and Dr.
Barnet -Stross, a famous act-
ress, Marie Burke, and a min-
ers’ leader, Arthur Horner.

But the day’s most thrilling
minutes came after the meeting
when Robeson’s own voice
sang out in a live transmission
across the Atlantic telephone
cable from New York.

Paul Robeson was an expres-
sion of the freedom of culture
everywhere, said Horner. He
was a great man who had
“dared to stake his own destiny
on the right to have an opinion
and to express it.”

The Mayor of St. Pancras,
Councillor A. C. Hurst, open-
ing the conference, pointed out
that a nursery school in the
borough had refused to accept
Paul Robeson’s son many years
ago. It would not have “hap-
pened today with the present
council,” he said to some laugh-
ter,

Dr: Barnet- ‘Stross, . MP;
pleaded with the American
people to “free this great song-
bird from his. cage and let him
sing wherever he feels like it.”

A great tradition of freedom

Arthur Miller, outstanding American playwright, show! |

Robeson

LONDON

conference was chaired by

from oppression had attracted |
millions to America’s shores
Now there was an_ hysteria
encouraged by McCarthyism:
It aimed to create the feeling
among the ptople that they
were in danger.

“As Senator McCarthy has
at last left us, the time ha
come to bury McCarthyism, 5®
deeply and firmly that if any
one is asked’ to come and siné
for us he will be given every
opportunity to come and do sO;
Dr. Stross concluded.

Joseph Murumbi of the
Movement for Colonial Free
dom said the American peopl
must be told that their attitude
was not Christian. It was im
possible to apply one sort 0
values to black people and #
different sort to white. :

Dr. David Pitt, prospectiv®
parliamentary Labor candid
ate, himself of African descents
said Communism was alway®
used as an excuse for suppres*
ing freedom, as was being done
in South Africa today. 4

The ban against Robeson w#
tantamount to a denial of th®
right to work.

here with Marilyn Monroe, his actress wife, has bee?
found guilty.on two counts of contempt of the U.S. Congress

for his refusal to act as informer for the House Un-Ameri-

can Activities Committee. The committée demanded he di-
vulge names of alleged Communists with whom he attende@

meetings 10 years ago. The 41-year-old playwright, who wor |
2 Pulitzer Prize for his Death of a Salesman, faces a maxi-

mum two-year term.

JUNE 7, 1957. — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE * |