§ MR. A. K. LOYD (Berks, Abingdon)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board, whether, in view of the difficulties attending the introduction of a workable scheme of State-aided provision for old age among the thrifty members of the wage-earning classes, the Government would be disposed to introduce during the present Session a Measure for encouraging thrift by the classification of paupers in workhouses according to merit, and the granting of out-door relief in deserving cases before savings are exhausted; and, whether the Local Government Board have information that a system of pauper classification according to merit has been, or is being, tried in any, and what, workhouses in England?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. HENRY CHAPLIN,) Lincolnshire, SleafordThe regulations as to workhouse administration provide that the Guardians shall, as far as circumstances will permit, provide for the sub-division of classes with reference to the moral character or the previous habits of the inmates, or to such other grounds as may seem expedient. In many workhouses it has been the practice, in determining to what wards inmates should be assigned, to have regard to their general character and conduct; but there are some workhouses where a more distinctive classification as regards the aged poor has been or is about to be tried. I may mention, as instances, the Bath, Macclesfield, and Birmingham Unions. The subject generally is receiving my consideration, and I have recently had a conference with the several General Inspectors of the Board with regard to it; but I cannot hold out the hope that I shall be able to introduce a Bill this Session.
§ MR. L. R. HOLLAND (Tower Hamlets Bow and Bromley)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, whether the expert Committee which the Government intend to appoint to investigate schemes of Old Age Pensions will be a Select Committee of the House with outside experts added, or how otherwise it will be constituted; and, whether he can state what the terms of reference to the Committee will be?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR,) Manchester, E.The Committee will be a small one, and, in the main, a Departmental Committee. The exact terms of reference are not yet settled. The Committee will be asked to give practical guidance as to the lines which legislation shall follow.