ABSTRACT
When the war started the Public Assistance Committees were still operating, and they continued to work all through the war; but the Unemployment Assistance Board was, by 1939, fully operative. It had its own offices and officers, its duties were laid down by Whitehall and could be extended or amended easily. As a result the government's new duties, which included aid to people who had suffered as a result of the war, were handed to the UAB (which dropped the word 'Unemployment') which also, in 1940, took over the responsibility for supplementing the old age pension for those who needed it. The pension then stood at ten shillings a week, and supplementation had always been possible at the discretion of the public assistance committees; but as soon as the Assistance Board1 took over, I ~ million people applied for aid who had not applied before. This may reflect the greater need of poorer people in times of inflation, it may even represent better official publicity, but it also suggests that the UAB or AB had a much better public image. The insurance scheme had been extended during the thirties, the gap of two years 32
between the ages of 14 (the compulsory school leaving age) and 16 (the age of entry into insurance) was now closed. Agricultural workers had been included in 1936 and even domestic servants had been brought in in 1938; but there were still some pretty obvious anomalies. The leading problem was the difference between the unemployment insurance scheme and that for health. The latter was still basically a private venture organized on a strictly commercial basis, and though it provided a domiciliary medical service for the breadwinner, it did nothing for his family and gave him only a pittance when he was ill. An unemployed man who became ill or was injured, for example, immediately faced a drop in his income of something like 50 per cent, and this often meant an immediate recourse to the PAC.
