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labor for time wages or piece wages, or on their own account provided they do not pay more than 30 lire ($5.79) per annum in taxes of any nature. Married women may be insured without the permission of the husband and minor persons without the permission of parent or guardian.

The institution may carry on an old-age insurance business among other classes of the population (so-called popular annuity insurance), but under special conditions, which will be explained presently.

When a regularly insured person ceases to satisfy the above-mentioned requirements, he is transferred to the popular insurance branch.

FORMS OF INSURANCE.-At the time of taking out the insurance the insured person must select one of the two recognized forms of insurance; the mutual form or the form of reserved contributions. In the first form, the payments of the insured are not returned; under the second form the actual value of the contributions made by the insured or by other persons for him are returned to his dependent relatives according to the following rules:

The surviving consort receives the whole amount when neither children nor relatives in an ascending line survive. When children survive, the consort receives 40 per cent and the children 60 per cent; when no children, but relatives in an ascending line survive, the consort receives 60 per cent and the latter 40 per cent.

When no consort survives the children receive the entire amount in equal portions; and in the absence of either a consort or children, the entire amount reverts to the relatives in an ascending line. Finally, when no consort, child, or ascending relative survives, the amount goes to the other descendants and brothers and sisters under 18 years of age, or disabled because of some physical or mental defect and who were supported by the insured while living.

The time for making application is limited to two years, and if no legal heirs under the above rules are disclosed within that time the amount subject to repayment is turned over to the invalidity fund.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF INSURED.-No regular premiums are exacted, the amount of contribution being left entirely to the option of the insured, except that contributions smaller than 1 lira (19 cents) are not accepted, nor are contributions including fractions of a lira accepted. This minimum limit of a single contribution is quite high, and may be claimed to be too high to stimulate the habit of small savings. To meet this difficulty the regulations provide for a method of making smaller savings by means of postage stamps. For that purpose special stamp cards are provided which are distributed without cost by the branches of the institution and through post-offices. These cards are ruled into squares, where ordinary postage stamps may be pasted until a full card represents a saving of 1 lira (19 cents), and may be handed in instead of cash. The accounts are sub

sequently adjusted between the insurance institution and the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs.

Certain minimum contributions are established to qualify the insured persons for the benefits given by the institution. These minima are 6 lire ($1.16) per annum for those classes whose insurance matures at the regular age (60 years for men and 55 for women), and 9 lire ($1.74) for those in the special occupations whose insurance expires at the age of 55 years.

It is sufficient, however, if the average amount of contributions for all the elapsed years satisfies this requirement, even if the contributions for the last year do not.

Furthermore, persons insured for a shorter period (as explained later) must add annually at least as many lire as equal the difference between 25 years and the number of years of their insurance period.

ACCOUNTS OF MEMBERS.-The contributions are credited to the individual accounts of the insured. According to the provisions of the new law, which have gone into effect only very recently, these accounts are to be very much simpler than heretofore, when there were six classes of entries for the mutual form and five entries for those insured with repayment of premiums in case of death. Against each payment made is entered the value of the annuity, to begin with the normal annuity age, purchasable for that one payment. The same rule applies to all benefit payments which are granted to these individual accounts.

Of course, the annuity equivalent of each payment can not be computed independently each time. Tables must be provided for such computation, and these tables take into consideration the probability of life at the time of maturity of the pension and the age at the time of payment, as the capital value of the payment at the time of maturity of the pension will depend upon the length of time interest is accruing upon it.

In the case of the mutual form of insurance an additional factor enters into consideration, namely, the death rate of the same class of insured. Different tables are necessary, therefore, for the two forms of insurance.

CHANGE OF FORM OF INSURANCE.-While the form of insurance (whether mutual or with reserved contributions) must be determined at the time of taking out the insurance, conditions may arise which make a change from one form to the other desirable. To provide for such conditions the new regulations permit a change from the mutual to the reserved-payments plan to the insured under 45 years of age within one year after marriage or after the birth of a child, with recomputation of the existing credits to his accounts, so that the amount of payments made by the insured prior to the transfer becomes available to his family in case of death. If, however, the

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insured does not comply with these requirements, the change has no retroactive force, and only the payments subsequently made are reserved.

On the other hand, the change from the reserved plan to the mutual plan is permitted unconditionally and the annuity value of the old payments is recomputed.

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS.-In order to stimulate the saving habit and also to increase the value of the pension, the old-age insurance institution contributes certain additions to the personal accounts. All persons insured according to the law are entitled to receive certain additions, provided they have complied with the requirements concerning the minimum annual payments, as explained on page 1879, and on the other hand have not accumulated an annuity of over 1,000 lire ($193) per annum. In addition, the old qualification of the law of 1898 has been perserved, that such insured workmen, for whom some special old-age and invalidity provision has been made either by the State, provincial government, communities, or any other public or private employers, are not entitled to any benefits. The amount of the ordinary benefit payable depends upon the resources available and is determined by the council, but must not exceed 10 lire ($1.93) per annum for each insured person. In addition special benefits are given to those insured for less than twenty-five years and for those in collective insurance.

From the current revenues at least 30 per cent must be deducted by the administrative council for distribution, according to thejudgment of the council, among the endowment fund, the special reserve fund, and the invalidity fund, of which more will be said; the rest is utilized for payment of benefits to the accounts of the insured. LIQUIDATION OF ACCOUNTS.-Each personal account may be liquidated in one of two ways, either by death of the insured or by the maturity of the insurance at the specified age. In case of death before maturity of the insurance, the deposits in case of mutual insurance are not repaid, and in case of insurance with reserved payments they are repaid according to the rules stated on page 1878.

Normally the pension matures at the age of 60 for men and 55 for women, and after at least 25 years have elapsed since the beginning of the insurance. The liquidation may be demanded at the age of 55 years by persons employed in mining, furnaces, glass factories, foundries, in operating steam boilers, in railroad services, and in other industries to be determined by royal decree. By such decree firemen, tax controllers, and watchmen, appointed by communities and provinces, and attendants in hospitals and insane asylums, were included. This right to receive the annuity at the earlier age of 55 is preserved only by those who at the time are still employed at one of these exceptional trades. Application for the insurance to mature at the age of 55 must be made within one year from the time of insuring,

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or from the time of employment at one of these occupations, if the person had been insured before.

The liquidation of the accounts may be effected and the annuity granted at the age indicated, even if less than 25 years but at least 10 years have elapsed from the beginning of the insurance; i. e., insurance may be taken by persons over 35 years of age but not over 50 years. But the insured must comply with the following special requirements. In addition to the usual minimum premium he must pay annually as many lire as years are missing to complete the twenty-five year period; i. e., when the insurance is to run only 10 years, the insured person pays additional 15 lire ($2.90) per annum; when the insurance is to last 15 years, he pays additional 10 lire ($1.93) per annum. The general rule that excess payments in one year may serve to cover deficiencies in payment of subsequent years applies also to these additional payments. Persons insured for such shorter periods must receive additional benefits to be determined by the administrative council. The liquidation and granting of the annuity may be deferred upon the request of the insured until the expiration of 65 years. PENSION TABLES.-The amount of pensions granted for the payment of $1, as approved March 18, 1909, are given in the following table for both plans of insurance, the mutual plan or that of alienated capital, and the reserved-capital plan. In the original tables the value of the annual pension purchased by the payment of a premium of 1 lira is computed for each year of age (from 55 to 70) at which the pension may mature. Only the columns for pensions maturing at 55, 60, 65, and 70 years are here reproduced. The difference in the amount of pensions for the two forms of insurance is found to be considerable, and this difference is seen to increase with the higher age of maturity, as at that age the chance of the maturing of the pension becomes smaller and the chance of death previous to maturity greater. Thus, at the age of 12, the value of the pension purchased for $1, to mature at the age of 55, would be 51.2 cents on the mutual plan and 44 cents, or 14 per cent less, on the reserved-capital plan, while if the pension is to mature at the age of 70, the value on the mutual plan would be $2.667 and on the reserved-capital plan $2.163, or nearly 19 per cent less.

The difference in the amount of pension secured for $1 under the two forms of insurance rapidly decreases as the age at which the payment is made increases. Thus, for the pensions maturing at the age of 55 years, the difference for payment of $1 made at the age of 12 is 7.2 cents; at the age of 20, 5.6 cents; at the age of 30, 3.5 cents; at the age of 40, 2 cents; at the age of 50, 0.6 of 1 cent; and at the age of 54, 0.1 of 1 cent. In percentages, however, the difference amounts to about 14 or 15 per cent until the age of 25, and then begins to decrease. In other words, the advantages of the mutual plan are greatest at the earlier ages.

AMOUNT OF ANNUAL PENSIONS SECURED FOR THE PAYMENT OF $1, BY AGE AT TIME OF PURCHASE, FORM OF INSURANCE, AND AGE AT MATURITY.

[Source: Regolamento Tecnico della Cassa Nazionale di Previdenza.]

Amount of annual pension purchased for $1 under

Age at time of purchase (years).

Mutual plan: Maturing at age of

Reserved-capital plan: Maturing at age of

55 years. 60 years. 65 years. 70 years. 55 years. 60 years. 65 years. 70 years.

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COMPUTATION OF PENSIONS.-Normally the computation of pensions is a very simple process according to the new law, being accomplished by a simple addition of the annuity values of all the separate entries in the account of the individual. In exceptional cases a lumpsum payment may be substituted for the annuity according to the provisions to be included in the new regulations. These provisions

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