Law Conference,[1] which is based upon information received from about 130 Unions in town and country, to which those who desire further information must be referred. Further corroboration is afforded by a remarkable memorandum recently presented to his Board by the Superintendent Relieving Officer of the Wandsworth Union. The memorandum is too long for quotation here, but the substance of it is contained in a paper upon "Old Age Pensions and the Poor Law," which may be obtained from Mr W. G. Lewis, publisher to the Central Poor Law Conference.
It is not only difficult, but impossible, for any individual to obtain comprehensive evidence upon a subject where the field of inquiry is so wide. But the following particulars of a limited number of concrete cases which have been dealt with quite recently in a single Union may serve to illustrate some of the points above mentioned, such, for instance, as the multiplicity of the public relief agencies that are at work upon individual cases of distress, the inadequacy of each form of relief taken separately, and the not infrequent misapplication of the relief given. The cases are grouped under two headings:—
(1) The overlapping of Old Age Pensions with the Poor Law.
(2) The overlapping of the Insurance Act with the Poor Law.
The cases given under the latter head cover a period of three months only. It may be pointed out with regard to the overlapping pension relief that, in the great majority of cases, the pensions continue to be paid either to the pensioners or their relatives, the amount recovered by the Guardians being practically nil. The same applies in the main to benefits received under the National Insurance Act.
Another striking case came before the Guardians of
- ↑ Published by W. G. Lewis, 100 South Hill Park, Hampstead.
