POOR LAW (AMENDMENT). (Hansard, 1 December 1937)

Miss Ward

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to authorise the payment by Poor Law authorities of personal allowances to pensioners of the age of sixty-five and over in Poor Law institutions. In prefacing what I have to say in asking leave of the House to introduce this Bill, I should like to pay a tribute to Miss Olive Matthews, to whose interest in the welfare of old people in our Poor Law institutions the introduction of this Bill is primarily due. I should also like to pay a tribute to the junior Member for Preston (Captain Cobb), who has advocated both in this House and behind the scenes, the policy of paying pocket-money to old age pensioners in the institutions. That background of my Bill is a very simple one. For some reason, which is not very apparent to legislators of to-day, although it must have been apparent at the time when the Act was passed, the Contributory Pensions Act provided that any men or women entering an institution other than for medical treatment should forfeit their pensions to the State. The practical result of that condition has been that numbers of men and women, many of whom had done very useful service in the community for a number of years, were left without any 2083 measure of independence, even that measure of independence which all of us enjoy when we feel that we have a small sum of money in our pockets which we can spend as and when we like.

An examination of what I may call our social records will show that these people are the only class of persons who are left in this completely penniless condition. Certain enlightened public authorities over a period of years, realising the hardships caused, have made payments illegally, I admit, to these old age pensioners, and it is the idea of trying to bring into harmony these illegal payments as well as promoting payments by local authorities who have not yet adopted such a policy, that I am asking the leave of the House to introduce the Bill. Obviously, the best way of dealing with the matter would be to amend the Contributory Pensions Act, but that I have no power to do, and I have not yet been able to obtain an assurance from the Minister of Health, though I believe him to be sympathetic to the principle underlying the Bill, that Parliamentary time would be provided to allow of the legal adjustments.

The purpose of the Bill is to give power to local authorities, if they so desire, to make weekly payments not exceeding 2s. to all pensioners of 65 years of age and upwards. I think this would be a very real benefit to these people who have to live year in and year out inside our institutions, many of them through no fault of their own entering an institution either because they have no one to look after them, or because there are not yet sufficient houses at low rents which will permit a single old age pensioner to live within his income, or married old age pensioners to live together. I feel quite certain that a permissive Bill of this nature will be a very real benefit, and I am glad to say that I have got the support of all parties in the House for it.

There are two points I must first mention. One is that I have fixed the maximum amount at 2S. because that, I believe, is an appropriate proportion of the 10s. which should be retained by the pensioner, having regard to the fact that he or she has no longer the cost of maintenance to provide. The other point is that I have had the temerity to make the 2084 Bill apply to Scotland. I have done so with a certain amount of caution, because I am well aware of the fate which might overtake aay English Member who presumes to introduce a private Member's Bill which is to be applied to the other side of the Border. But I have, I think, safeguarded my position by getting two of my Scottish colleagues to back the Bill.

As I have said, I have the support of all parties in the House, and a very great deal of support has come to me from experienced members of institutional management committees and institution managers, who feel that a Bill of this kind will enable them to carry out the policy of making the institution as human as possible. I am quite certain in these days of grace, when we take a real pride in trying to remove the Poor Law stigma from our institutional life, that it will be a very valuable contribution to the amenities of institutional life. I hope in view of the general sympathetic support I seem to have received that the Bill will easily find its way to the Statute Book, and, if it does, I believe it will bring a good deal of happiness and a very much wider and greater interest into the lives of the old people themselves. I believe that the House of Commons by placing this Bill on the Statute Book will have achieved an object very well worth while.