§ MR. T. R. BETHELL (Essex, Maldon)To ask the President of the Local Government Board if he can state what proportion of persons over seventy years of age chargeable to the Poor Law unions are in receipt of outdoor relief, and whether there is any uniform practice among boards of guardians as to the granting of outdoor relief to the aged poor.
(Answered by Mr. John Burns.) I am not in a position to state the precise proportion, but it is estimated that about three out of every four persons over seventy years of age who are chargeable to Poor Law unions and parishes are in receipt of outdoor relief. Boards of guardians in England and Wales, I think, usually grant outdoor relief to deserving aged persons who have no adequate means of subsistence, unless there is some cause which renders admission to the workhouse necessary in the interests of the pauper.