ABSTRACT
This chapter examines first the question of 'resources' of people applying for assistance, second their 'requirements', and third the extent to which national assistance has been used since 1948 and by whom. But the essence of national assistance, as of the poor law which it is superseding is that it is available for the completely destitute. The national assistance scales provided by the 1948 Act were inadequate in two ways. The White Paper in 1959 indicated that national assistance should assume a new role. With the payment of discretionary allowances and rent, assistance allowances have been substantially higher for every single year since 1948. Lord Beveridge felt that the difference between providing adequate insurance benefits for all and inadequate insurance benefits plus supplementation from national assistance was that 'Insurance benefit as of right without enquiry as to other means puts a floor below inequalities.
