§ SIR WALTER FOSTER (Derbyshire, Ilkeston)To ask the President of the Local Government Board how many boards of guardians have increased their allowance to outdoor paupers of seventy years of age and upwards to 5s. per week since the passing of the Old-Age Pensions Act; and if he can state the cost of this increase to the Poor Law if made universal for paupers over seventy.
(Answered by Mr. John Burns.) Some boards of guardians have proposed to take the course indicated in the Question, but I cannot say how many of them have 454 actually done so. If the increase in outdoor relief to 5s. a week to paupers over seventy years of age became universal in England and Wales it is estimated that the increased cost would amount to about £900,000 a year. I have, however, intimated to boards of guardians who have communicated with me on the subject that it would not be a proper exercise of their powers to order a fixed weekly sum as outdoor relief to all persons above a certain age to whom that form of relief is given. I have pointed out that the amount of relief in any particular case should be determined by the necessities of that case, and that although in some instances the conditions might be such that 5s. a week would be needed, in others this would not be so, and that in the latter cases the additional relief contemplated could not properly be given.