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The Beginnings of British Legislation for Old-Age Pensions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Ronald V. Sires
Ronald V. Sires
Affiliation:
Whitman College
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Extract

In A society operating completely on the principles of economic individualism, each adult person would be expected to make provision for his own needs and for those of his dependents. He would have to earn enough to provide food, clothing, and shelter, as well as develop the necessary frugality to lay by enough to care for himself and dependents during periods of illness and unemployment. He would likewise be expected to make provision for old age and for funeral expenses. The duties of an adult person in society would be looked upon as being not only economic but also moral in nature, requiring the constant making of choices in expenditure, not merely of what goods to buy but of the spacing of expenditures over long periods of time. If a person met with economic reverses and could not provide, he showed himself to be incapable of dealing with the problems of a responsible adult and ought not to look to others to get him out of his predicament. His condition would be considered to result from lack of the moral qualities required of a person who had taken upon himself the responsibilities of adult life.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , Summer 1954 , pp. 229 - 253
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1954

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References

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42 Parl. Deb., 4th ser., Vol. CXC, July 16, 1908, cols. 823–32Google Scholar. On the day of the introduction of the budget, Austen Chamberlain said that he doubted whether there were half a dozen persons in the House who were opposed to a system of pension legislation on principle; he recognized that public opinion had reached the point where the question had to be dealt with in one way or another.—Ibid., Vol. CLXXXVIII, May 7, 1908, cols. 480-84.

43 lbid., Vol. CLXXXIX, June i6, 1908, cols. 813–22.

44 Ibid., May 25, 1908, cols. 824-30, and Vol. CLXUI, July 9, 1908, cols. 148–58.

45 Ibid., Vol. CLXL, June 15, 1908, cols. 596ff, 761–67; Vol. CLXUI, July 9, cols. 201–4. The vote on the motion to postpone was 10 to 315. Balfour, Bonar Law, and Austen Chamberlain did not take part in the division.

46 Ibid., Vol. CLXLII, House of Lords, July to, 1908, cols. 1330–31. 1346, 1432.

47 Ibid., colt. 1360–69.

48 Ibid., coll. 1369–78.

49 Ibid., cols. 1379–89.

50 A proviso was included whereby continuous payments for ten years up to the age of sixty years to a recognized thrift society (friendly society, trade union, etc.) would be considered as satisfactory, evidence of having made provision for oneself and dependents and would protect the wife of the person from disqualification under the relevant provision.

51 Computation will show that qualified persons with income from £21 to £31/10 per annum from nonpension sources would enjoy total incomes of between twelve and thirteen shillings a week from both sources. A qualified person receiving a nonpension income of £13 (five shillings a week) would have an income of ten shillings from both sources.

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