ABSTRACT
…We fully recognise that there are many among those who become destitute in old age for whom assistance in some form should be secured independent to the workhouse; and we have specially insisted that where outdoor relief is granted the amount should be adequate to the needs of the recipient. But if we look closely at the statements of the more extreme advocates of extended outdoor relief, it is clear that some of them contemplate its grant as a matter of course to the poorer members of the working classes, provided that they have led decent lives, as soon as they cease to be able to earn the normal wages of their calling. It has been proposed that the relief should not be limited to those who are destitute, that it should be granted to persons whose relatives could provide the reasonable necessities of life, or who could procure them upon their own resources; and that it should not be made conditional on proof in each case of efforts to provide in the earlier years of life for the inevitable wants of old age, it being often assumed that any such provision is impossible for larger classes of the population. We have found many indications of such views in the evidence of witnesses who have come before us as representatives of the working classes …
