CO129-558-8 Revision of salaries 19-8-1936 - 11-2-1937 — Page 120

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RETIREMENT ON THE GROUND OF ILL HEALTH

In paragraph 109 of the Scheme for the Unification of the Colonial Administrative Service, it is suggested that (as a corollary to the fixing of the pension constant at a flat rate of 1 th for the whole service) the

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greater risk of a breakdown in health leading to premature retirement which officers serving in comparatively "unhealthy" climates run, as compared with officers serving under more favourable climatic conditions, might be recognised where necessary by the grant of a special augmentation of the pensions granted to officers who are called upon to retire on medical grounds. A strict application of this proposal would limit the award of a special addition to pension to cases in which the ill-health leading to retirement is, in fact, attributable to the effects of the climate in which the officer has been serving, and the amount of the addition would be related to the degree of attributability and also to the degree of disablement. Any attempt to distinguish between individual cases on this basis would clearly involve very great practical difficulties: but, while it is not suggested that these difficulties would necessarily be insuperable, further consideration suggests that it is possible, and indeed preferable, to deal with this matter on a more general basis. Under the old system of different pension rates for different Colonies, the principle was, in effect, one of compensating an officer for having to serve in a particular locality. The principle upon which the new system would be based would be that of compensating an officer for premature loss of career if, and only if he suffers such loss by reason of ill-health. This principle is capable of application to all colonies; it avoids the complicated questions which would arise if the increase is related to climatic influences, and substitutes for them the simple rule that some increase should invariably be granted in cases of retirement for ill-health, and that once the general scale of addition is settled the amount of addition in any particular case should be determined solely by the extent to which the officer's ill-health has deprived him of the prospect of completing a normal career in the public service. In practice the addition would vary with the length of the officer's service, an officer invalided at an early stage in his career receiving a larger addition than an officer invalided at a later stage. It would be possible, if necessary, to have varying scales of addition in different dependencies; but if the common pension constant is adopted, there would seem to be little justification for a departure from uniformity in the scale of additions on retirement for medical reasons.

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Carried to its logical conclusions this system would postulate the disappearance of the provision which is now universally found in the pension systems of all the Colonies and of the United Kingdom, under which an officer invalided before completing a fixed period of service (normally ten years) receives a gratuity and not a pension, since if regard is had solely to the loss of prospects of a career in the public service which is occasioned by retirement for medical reasons, the greatest sufferer is the officer who is deprived of his career at the very outset of his working life. In this con- nection it is relevant to observe that in East Africa a retrenched officer receives a pension even though he has not completed ten years' service.

On the other hand, it may be urged that it is hardly consistent with a due and proper regard to the interests of public economy that a system of this nature should be pushed to the extreme logical end. It cannot be denied that officers who have served the Government well over a considerable period of years have a greater claim upon the Government if their health breaks down than officers whose service is limited to a short period, nor that officers who are invalided early in life have normally a greater prospect of recovery and of making a career for themselves in other spheres than officers who are deprived of their employment during middle age or later.

The draft of a concrete scheme for providing compensatory additions, supposing that it were decided to give effect to the principle of granting such additions is appended to this memorandum.

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