CORRESPONDENCE.
OLD-AGE PENSIONS.
fTo THE EDITOR OP TEN " SP2CTAT02.1 Six,—How will old-age pensions operate upon the London Unions ? is a question, perhaps, which I can answer with some useful information. I am an aged inmate iu St. George's Union, Fulham, an institution sheltering nearly one thousand aged men, partly at present composed of a large number sent there from overcrowded Wandsworth and Camberwell. In the day-room, the exercise yard, and in the dormitory the old-age pension scheme is the constant topic of conversation, dis- cussed with that eagerness which men evince in a subject in which they have a keen personal concern. From the remarks overheard, from direct inquiries made, and from various information gleaned, I am, I believe, enabled to arrive at something like a correct estimate as to the effect upon the inmates of this Union of the . granting of a pension of five shillings a week to men over sixty-five years of age.
A number of inmates, no doubt, can rely on children, relatives, and friends taking charge of them in consideration of being able through the pension to contribute to the family chest. The number is nothing near so large as the general public anticipate. I do not believe there are a hundred male inmates in this Union who would be taken charge of by their friends on such conditions. They will visit them, receive them in their homes on the occasion of their weekly outing, show their interest in them by small presents of pocket- money, and perform other little kindnesses with a view to softening the hardships of. their lot, but certainly will not be burdened with them in their homes. In support of this view I may instance the number of people who pay as much weekly as the anticipated pension towards the maintenance of parents in the Union. A very small number of the pen- sioned might be able through getting some kind of partial employment to maintain themselves, but I hardly think this should be estimated as a serious factor in the matter. What chance has a man sixty-five years of age of getting employ- ment in the present state of the London labour market ? He would certainly be induced to work for lower pay, and this might be warmly resented by the working class.
A large proportion—indeed, I might say a vast proportion— would decline to live outside on the pension. They have no friends on whom they can rely for a continuity of assistance, and it is impossible that they can support themselves on this pittance. " What could I do with five shillings a week ? " said an old man who has .been a City clerk. "It would scarcely pay my lodging-money, and I know not where else to look for help." He is one of the respectable class of inmates who accept their position with resignation and courage. Such have not been brought here through crime or drink. Many of them have been outdistanced in the race for existence by younger men, or illness has thrUst them aside, or they have been forced here through varied influences and circumstances which have shipwrecked them upon the beach of misfortune. The benefits to be derived from any old-age pension scheme will not reach them, and yet it is this class, I believe, that the general public.are most desirous to assist and help.
Then:kis, however, a very large class waiting with intense interest the advent of the pension scheme. These are the wastrels, the "ne'er-do-weels," who. have spent the greater portion of their lives in the various Unions in London and the country. Five shillings a week means a rosy future for them. "It would," said one of these worthies, "let me pay my lodging-money—half-a-crown a week—and then I should have half-a-dollar in my pocket. I can easily cadge what tornmy ' (bread) and victuals I require, and as soon as ever I get the pension I swim out of this, never to come back again." Such and similar confessions one hears on all sides reveal the eagerness with which this class anticipate the privilege. These are amongst the inmates who leave the " house " in spring and summer, or whenever fine weather sets in, and swell the great tramp population of England. They have thoroughly mastered the intricacies of the Poor Law system of relief. Which are the best workhouses to patronise, which to avoid, how to get the most advantage out of the present system of Poor Law relief, where charities most abound, how best to share in the benefits they bestow, ar•e difficulties they have long ago solved; and, to do them justice, they are not grudging in imparting information on these points to others, and in giving them the benefit of their experiences. They would live and thrive on five shillings a week where others would starve. It will probably be urged that the scheme will he so hedged about with precautions as to preclude this class from sharing in its benefits. A greater mistake, I am convinced, could not possibly be made. It is this very class who now derive the most advantages from the present system of Poor• Law relief. They hustle aside the timid applicant for relief, and by deceit, prevarication, and lies appropriate the benefits which should be bestowed upon more worthy objects. They know more about the administration of the Poor Law than do many of the officials themselves. The astute statesman has yet to be born who could devise a scheme through which these gentry could not find a hole or crevice to creep in and get. a nibble at the cheese. When in receipt of five shillings a week pension thousands will leave the London Unions. They will fill the common lodging-houses; indeed, the tax upon the resources of the lodging-houses will be so great that they will increase in all directions, and London and its neigh- bourhood will be invaded and infested with an army of aged mendicants. The injustice of the whole thing weighs strongly upon my mind when I reflect that the burden of this probable wanton expenditure will fall-upon the hard-working ratepayers, upon whom like parasites these wastrels fasten, feed, and fatten.
Not in this direction can a proper reform of the Poor• Law system be expected. Indeed, the abuses likely to be thereby encouraged are to my mind appalling. The door threatens to be open to all kinds of deception and fraud at the expense of the bard-working, the industrious, and the thrifty. What is needed is a system of classification which will separate the well-behaved, respectable inmates from association with the vicious and totally depraved. This is not a question of money. The respectable inmates will confess that in the housing, the food, and the general accommodation they have as much as they can expect in the circumstances. Indeed, it is those who have lived in the meanest and most wretched surroundings who are the loudest in their complaints. No one can imagine the sad experience the respectable aged poor have to undergo in the London workhouses, who are compelled to pass the whole of their lives in association with all that is vile in .human nature. Foul oaths, filthy talk, the relation of gaol experiences, and, indeed, of everything most degrading to human nature, are what they ar•e com- pelled to hear day by day without a break. No wonder• some old people leave the " house " in horror to face any hardships, starvation, and death rather than continue such experiences. The old-age pension scheme might certainly bring this compensating advantage, that it would compara- tively empty the Unions of this class ; but whether that will be a satisfactory result to the general public is another matter. It surely cannot be an insuperable difficulty to separate the sheep from the goats. Indeed, the conduct-record kept by the " house " would be the foundation for a satisfactory beginning. Mr. John Burns on Christmas Day visited the Tooting Home, where a system of classification is carried out, and expressed his great satisfaction with the manner in which that institu- tion is conducted. An extension of that scheme to all the London Unions and throughout the country would be more beneficial to the aged poor than any pension scheme the Government is likely to produce.—I am, Sir, &c.; A WORKHOUSE INMATE. .[Our correspondent's criticism shows that old-age pensions are, in fact, outdoor• relief to old persons and nothing more, and are open to all the objections which Poor Law reformers have always urged against out-relief when claimed as a right, or given on a great scale.—En. Spectator.]
Previous page
