Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress. : Appendix Volume XXI. Report to the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress on an inquiry in certain unions into cases of refusal of out=relief / By Miss G. Harlock.

  • Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905-09
Date:
1910
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress. : Appendix Volume XXI. Report to the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress on an inquiry in certain unions into cases of refusal of out=relief / By Miss G. Harlock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    Charaotbb.—Good. Cheldebn.—None. HousiNO.—Lives in one room, fourth floor back. Good neighbourhood. Weekly rent, 3s. One inmate. General Conditions.—House, passage and stairs very clean. Room clean and comfortably furnished. PooB Law Relief Granted.—Order for the workhouse, October 31st, 1907. Other Help.—^None. Relations (other than children) legally liable or able to help.—Lives in the same house as a nephew who cannot afford to keep her. He is a grocer's porter, and has a wife and two small children. The wife cleans ofiSces and goes out charing. Causb of Application for Relief.—Dastitution, as she cannot work to keop hersslf any longer. General Remarks. November, 1907.—Miss V. H. worked with the same firm as a machinist for over forty years. Now she is too old to work. The business has recently changed hands and the new owner will not have anyone so old on his staff. She is a most superior and respectable old lady. The style of her furniture, etc., show that she belongs to people who have had a comfortable home. She is selling her furniture in order to live. A book case was standing ready to be fetched away when I called. In recent years she has made muslin window curtains for the firm for whom she worked. Her father and mother were for many years sexton and sextoness at St. Peter's Church, Saffron Hill, and prior to that they had been schoolmaster and schoolmistress in the same parish. After her father died she helped her mother with the work in connection with the Church. Her mother lived to be 88 and during the last years of her life Miss V. H. took care of, and helped to support her. Now she is getting beyond work for herself. When she applied for relief She had never felt so ashamed before, and felt that she was committing a crime. The relieving officer and the guardians were very kind to her, but told her they could not help her, as she belonged to Clerkenwell Union. But they advised liar to go into the workhouse and become chargeable, and then they would see what the Clerkenwell Guardians would do for her. But she could not go into the workhouse. Miss V. H. is of Dutch origin. Her grandparents came to England from Holland, but both her father and mother were born in London and she was also. lebraary, 1908.—The refusal of relief makes life a constant anxiety. Circumstances remain much the same as when I called in November. Miss V. H. contiimes to sell her furniture in order to live. She earns a few pence occasionally by doing a bit of sewing, and Is. 6d. per week for njiinding her niece's children when she goes out to work. PARISH OF PADDINGTON. CASE-PAPER No. 4. N. H. (Married). (Left his wife twenty-two years ago.- Does not know where she is and does not want to.) Age.—69. Eabnings.—General dealer. Own business. Owes £25 for rent, and £4 for other things. Health.—Had a stroke—hand paralysed. Character.—Relieving officer says Not steady. He has known N. H. for years, but has never seen him drunk. Charity Organisation Society have letters filed with his case-papers, from various persons, who testify to his respectability, and recommend him as a deserving case. Children.— HOFSiNG.—Pays rent for the whole house, which his daughter-in-law lets off in rocms. Good neighbourhood. Weekly rent, 20s. and rates. General Conditions.—-The exterior of the house presents a look of well-being and prosperity. There are clean lace curtains to all the front windows. Steps, passage and approach to the house clean. Poor Law Relief Granted.—Applied for, November, I4th, 1907. Not entertained. Other Help.—None. Relations (other than children) legally liable or able to help.—Widowed daughter-in-law with her two children (19 and 14) live here. She keeps a lodging-house and lets rooms, and N. H. lives with her. They occupy the basement and three other rooms. Two other rooms are let for 5s. each, one at 2s., and the top floor for 7s. ; but five of the rooms are at present unlet. Caitsb of Application for Relief.—Unable to maintain himself. , - r General Remarks. November, 1907.—N. H. formerly had a business of his own. He parted with this in 1905 for £25, and has long since spent all the money. The business was not in a flourishing condition when sold. At one period it had been prosperous. N. H. was out when I called. His widowed daughter-in-law came to the door. She looked a hard-working respectable woman, but said she could not afford to keep her father-in-law. The house stands in his name, but she always manages it. N. H. frets a great deal because he can get nothing to do, and the worry of this tells on his health and spirits. The furnitm-e in the house belongs to his daughter-in-law. She has two lodgers who board with her. One owes her £12. The relieving officer informs me that he thinks Mrs. H. is very hard pressed, and that it is doubtful whether she wiU be able to keep the business going, especially as the house is in an unsuitable neighbourhood for her purpose. The borough council excused N. H. the pa5nnent of his last rate value £3 16s. He has rented this house for sixteen years. He has had a stroke and it is unlikely that he will ever find any employment. In August, 1907, he applied to the Charity Organisation Society to find him some light work or to grant him a pension. After making the fullest inquiries they did not see their way to provide a pension. February, 1908—No change in circumstances since November. Probably if out-relief had been granted to N. H., his daughter-in-law would have been contented to make a home for him. As things are she is always complaining and trying to get rid of him. But it would have been an impossibility to give relief of any kind to a person with a yearly rental of £50 and rates. I did not see N. H. He had gone out to try and get some bill distributing. He occasionally earns a shilling in this way. Mrs. H. told me that times were very bad. She has no lodgers now, but all her rooms are let. She said that she could not possibly afford to keep N. H.
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