Successful single claimants over the age of seventy were paid five shillings a week, while couples in which the husband was aged over seventy got seven shillings and sixpence per week.[1]
Outline
The Act provided for a non-contributory old age pension for people over the age of seventy, with the cost being borne by taxpayers generally. It was enacted in 1908 and was to pay a weekly pension of 5s a week (7s 6d for married couples) with effect from 1 January 1909. The level of benefit was deliberately set low – the approximate equivalent of £23 in 21st century terms[2] – to encourage workers to go on making their own provision for retirement.
In order to be eligible, claimants had to be over the age of 70, and had to have been a British subject for 20 years and have resided in Great Britain and Ireland for at least twenty years to be eligible. It was open to both men and women, both married and single, and their "yearly means" could not exceed £31 10s.[3] Only those with a 'good character' could receive the pensions.[3] Others excluded from receiving the new pension were those in receipt of poor relief, those being held in what were then called 'lunatic asylums', those who had served a prison sentence and been released less than ten years before, those convicted of drunkenness (at the discretion of the court), and any person who was guilty of ‘habitual failure to work’, according to ability.[4]
Implementation
The pension was due to be paid from 1 January 1909, and those eligible had to apply to a local pension committee starting in October 1908 set up by the county councils.[3] Forms for applicants were available from the end of September 1908 and had to be returned to the postmaster of the post office that would pay the individual's benefit.[3] The claims were assessed by the pension officers and then sent to the local pension committee for approval.[3]
On 31 December 1908 a total of 596,038 pensions had been granted:[5]
Initially, most of the recipients of the pension benefit were women. In order to remove any stigma in receiving the benefit, the scheme was administered by the Post Office rather than the existing social welfare agencies such as the parish or Poor Law.
As Winston Churchill, (with David Lloyd George a major social reformer of the era), said of the pension level, "It is not much unless you have not got it".[2]
Flora Thompson, who helped administer the first Post Office payouts, has movingly recorded the relief and gratitude of the first recipients: "'God bless that Lord George and God bless you, miss!' and there were flowers from their gardens and apples from their trees for the girl who merely handed them the money".[6]
