Report from the Select Committee on Aged Deserving Poor ; together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, and appendix.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on the Aged Poor.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report from the Select Committee on Aged Deserving Poor ; together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, and appendix. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    present for their own support, and that the considerations which induce to industry and thrift will cease to operate in future. We are unable to perceive how these objections can apply in the case of the proposals for which your Committee is responsible. 82. To encourage and to stimulate the poor by their own exertions to keep off the rates is by general admission a most desirable object. The non-receipt of Poor Law relief is one of the conditions of the Danish pension system, and whatever else it may be possible to urge against that system, it is certain from the evidence of Mr. Davy that since it was established the number of recipients of poor relief in Denmark has greatly diminished; and similar results may be naturally expected in this country, from the conditions of the scheme we recommend, in which the non- receipt of poor relief is included, and is indeed among the chief. 83. Again it has to be remembered that, under the scheme we recommend, membership of a benefit society or evidence of some other form of thrift are to be taken into account in granting a pen'sion, and it seems to your Committee that so far from discouraging either industry or thrift, additional inducements to the practice of those virtues are offered by the proposals which they make. 84. The injurious effect of any pension scheme on the rate of wages has also been suggested as an objection to the system, but the amount of labour which would be affected by a Pension scheme after the age of 65 is so comparatively small that we do not attach very serious importance to this objection. 85. It has also been objected by various witnesses, and their objections were endorsed by the Aberdare Commission and also by the Rothschild Committee, that adequate investigation into the past history, character, and position (financial or otherwise) of the applicants for pensions would be impracticable; but those who have taken this objection do not seem to recognise the work of the Charity Commissioners, or the Pension schemes which, under their auspices, are in operation at the present time.* 86. If it be possible to ascertain the merits and deserts of candidates for pensions under the schemes of the Charity Commissioners in England, and this is what is done and done successfully at present, we are unable to admit that a similar process may not be successfully repeated on a larger scale by the means which we propose. 87. We have now examined the various matters which have been referred to us, and we have only to say this in conclusion :— We are very sensible of the grave importance of the inquiry which has been com- mitted to our care, and of the difficulties of the problem which it has been our duty to examine. We have given to the subject, within the time at our disposal, the best attention in our power, and we make our proposals, with the deference which is due to the opinions of others, on a difficult and highly complicated question. But we believe that if they are adopted they will add to the comfort, and improve the position, of the Aged and Deserving Poor. Q. 953. 26 July 1899. • These pension schemes number approximately 250.