ABSTRACT
The Assistance Board is one of the major social experiments of the century. It was originally designed to assist the long-term unemployed, the burden of whom, spread unevenly over the country, local rates were unable to support. The Assistance Board was created on the assumption that social insurance benefits must be limited both in amount and in duration, and that therefore it was necessary to have a net in which to catch those who had run out of benefit. The Area Officers are responsible for the actual day-to-day administration of Assistance, as well as for maintaining contacts both with local leaders of the community and with other relevant statutory and voluntary bodies. The 1934 Act permits the Board to penalise applicants in any of four stipulated ways if they are "cases of special difficulty". Appeal Tribunals consist of a Chairman and two other members, and operate over an area or a district.
