WIDOWS' AND ORPHANS' PENSION (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

7.26 p.m.

The Minister for Finance (Dr Goh Keng Swee): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

The Widows' and Orphans' Pension Scheme enshrined in the Widows' and Orphans' Pensions Ordinance is a compulsory contributory scheme for all Government officers who are holding pensionable offices, and who are restricted by law to monogamous marriages. Formerly this, in practice, meant Government officers of Christian religion. The scheme was designed, as its name suggests, to cater for the interests of widows and orphans of public servants, and indeed it served a useful purpose at the time when the scheme was brought into operation. However, in a democratic society such as we are, anything that suggests of compulsion is suspect and often strongly disliked, and over the years the staff unions, including individual officers, have voiced strong opposition to this scheme and have pressed for its abolition or conversion to a voluntary scheme. A further complication cropped up when the Government introduced the Women's Charter in September 1961. This resulted in those Government officers who are non-Christians and who are not restricted to monogamous marriages before being now obliged to contribute to the scheme. It was not the intention then to bring such officers within the ambit of the Widows' and Orphans' Pensions Ordinance. It is now clear that the scheme has outdated its usefulness. Bearing in mind, therefore, the feelings of the staff unions, the position of officers who through the Women's Charter suddenly found themselves liable to contribute to the scheme, the Government decided to make contributions to the scheme voluntarily and to extend to existing contributors the choice of opting out of the scheme if they wish.

There will be three options under the present amendment, namely,

(1) Government officers can continue to contribute;

(2) they can cease to contribute and elect to be paid an actuarially calculated sum; and

(3) they can cease to contribute and preserve the rights that have accrued to them under the Widows' and Orphans' Pensions Ordinance.

These various options are not new. Similar options had already been written into the Ordinance in 1958 but confined to the benefit of expatriate officers who went away on Malayanisation. Therefore, in a sense, the present amendment Bill now before the House merely extends the options to local officers -- concessions which they have been clamouring for unsuccessfully in the past. The proposed amendment will also preclude membership of the scheme those officers who are appointed to the Government service on or after 2nd March 1961, the date prescribed in the Women's Charter for marriages thereafter to be monogamous.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole Assembly.

Assembly immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Dr Goh Keng Swee]

Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.