offices, while their less experienced assistants are charged with the less attractive duty of investigating the circumstances of applicants. It often happens that Guardians themselves, while giving the most sympathetic consideration to the ordinary case, find that they have not sufficient time for interviewing applicants at Relief Committees. 66 (d) The grant of out-door relief in unsuitable cases, such, for example, as persons habitually living in common lodging houses, hawkers, and the like, whose earnings, and, therefore, whose means cannot readily be verified, and persons living in unsatisfactory or insanitary homes. For an instance of the effect of a refusal of out-relief to the two former classes of case reference may be made to Mr. Hayward's report, in which a reduction of 25 per cent. in the out-relief figures is attributed to this among other causes. Mr. Roundell's report gives some striking instances of persons living in insanitary conditions which, of course, tend to be perpetuated by a continued grant of out-relief. (e) The grant of unconditional out-relief. There is on the part of many Boards of Guardians a marked reluctance to impose conditions such as are contemplated in the Relief Regulation Order, 1911, upon the grant of out-relief to the ablebodied. The three forms of condition recognized by that Order are the workhouse test, the modified workhouse test (which requires the man to enter the institution as a condition to his dependants receiving out-relief), and the labour test. It would seem that in many cases the Guardians are particularly reluctant to enforce the institutional test. Where, however, this test has been imposed the results have been somewhat striking. For example, Mr. Maslin's report gives one instance where admission to the institution was offered in the case of 140 men of whom 30 accepted, and most of the 30 had subsequently left and ceased to be in receipt of relief; while in another instance admission orders were given to 84 men of whom only 16 accepted, all the remainder but one having gone off relief altogether. Mr. Batterbury gives an instance in which 62 of 140 cases accepted admission to the institution and only 36 remained there, the remainder apparently having found means of livelihood. The following extract from Mr. Nisbet's report gives an example of the successful application of the modified workhouse test. 80 married men, who had been on and off' relief for periods of from one to six years, were offered indoor relief as a condition of continued out-door relief to their families. The families varied in number from one to eight, over half of the men having three or more children dependent. In 54 cases the offer of a workhouse order was not accepted and no further application for relief was made. In 26 cases the offer was accepted. 13 of the men admitted took their discharge within a week, and one on the tenth day after admission. None of these 14 have applied again for relief within five months. Of the remaining 12, only one remained in for more than a week after admission, but all were subsequently re-admitted, seven on four occasions or less, the remaining five from eight to twelve times. Inquiry showed that of the 80 men 35 found regular employment, and 44 were supporting themselves by casual work and by the earnings of other members of the family. In four cases only the man appeared to earn nothing. One man remained in the workhouse." Similar examples may be found elsewhere in the Inspectors' reports. Several Boards of Guardians have evinced less reluctance to impose a labour test, but from lack of facilities or for other reasons the form of test is often so attenuated that its value is seriously diminished. Article XI of the Relief Regulation Order contemplates a full week's work as a condition of the receipt of the appropriate amount of relief, but where there are large numbers of applications there are practical difficulties in the way of enforcing it. In many Unions the expedient is adopted of requiring from each man only so much work as is proportionate to the amount of his relief. This is, from the Poor Law point of view, inequitable inasmuch as it requires a more severe test from the man with dependants than from the single man. It also tends to create the false impression that the man is at work for wages and is not merely working as a condition of receiving poor law relief. Even so, this form of test has some value as may be seen from the following extract from Mr. Hayward's report, referring to an increase of 68 per cent. of the number of able-bodied persons in receipt of outdoor relief as between June, 1927, and January, 1928: "The large increase in the Sculcoates figures appears to be mainly due the fact that in December the Guardians decided to suspend the performance of any test work in the majority of cases. Up to that time able-bodied men had been required to perform a certain amount of test work varying with the amount of relief granted to them." In the absence of other facilities for providing a labour test the Guardians have in several instances entered into arrangements with Local Authorities for the provision of work for men in receipt of relief. At the end of the year arrangements of this kind were in operation in 56 Unions. In 26 of these the total amounts received by the men did not exceed the amounts which would otherwise have been payable as relief, while in the remaining 30 the men were paid wages by the Councils at the current rate, and the Local Authorities were reimbursed by the Guardians to the extent of the estimated saving in relief. It is very desirable for obvious reasons that the work should not be work which would normally have been undertaken by the Local Authority, and it is further desirable for the reasons indicated above that the work should not be proportionate to the amount of relief. The most satisfactory form of co-operative scheme would be one in which the Local Authority would provide the necessary facilities for the work, while the Guardians kept the men continuously at work and paid their relief, half in cash and half in kind as is contemplated by Article 11 of the Relief Regulation Order. Unfortunately, however, many Local Authorities are not in favour of test work as such and will only co-operate if the work is treated as work for wages at ordinary trade union rates. On It will be realised that the value of schemes of this nature depends almost entirely on the way in which they are administered. the one hand, if a man can obtain out-relief at the cost of a few hours' work per week, and is able for the remainder of the time to do nothing or to pick up casual earnings (which may or may not be disclosed), there is little inducement for him to seek regular employment. On the other hand, if a few weeks' work can be provided for substantial periods, moral and physical fitness are preserved, and there is a much better prospect of an independent livelihood being obtained. The following results of the year's working of a scheme of the latter type organised by the Birmingham Guardians are of interest. Year ended 31st March, 1928. Total number of men who were sent by the Birmingham Guardians to the Birmingham Corporation, and found employment by the latter, from 1st April, 1927, to 31st March, 1928 ... ... Number of such men who declined the employment ... ... ... ... 1,795 30 to the 530 637 598 Number of men who were taken off work on account of 1,795 In another Union the test applied is more directly educational. The Salford Board are trying the experiment under which a man below the age of 35 (30 if married) is required, as a condition of the receipt of out-relief, to attend classes at which physical training. is given, together with instruction in handicraft, English, arithmetic and other subjects. Mr. Maslin reports that 150 men have been found employment mainly as a result of the training afforded in the classes. Proposals are being considered for an extension of the experiment to embrace the needs of other unemployed persons. Some Boards of Guardians have aimed at securing similar results by using their own machinery for the purpose of finding employment for the able-bodied. Schemes of this kind are manifestly outside the normal province of Guardians, and cannot be recommended for general adoption. Apart from the risk of duplicating machinery, there is the obvious risk of attracting applicants for relief. It is clear, therefore, that an unusual degree of discretion as well as energy is needed for their successful operation, and it is further of great importance that, with a view to providing an effective test, the subsequent careers of those for whom employment is found should be watched, and any later applications for relief from such persons treated upon their merits. The following figures give the results obtained in a Metropolitan Union where the foregoing conditions are fulfilled, and are worthy of record: In the year ended March 31, 1928, 297 men, 54 women, and 15 juveniles were found employment in commerce, and 8 men and 20 women in the Guardians' Institutions, while, since the scheme was started in 1922, the total number of persons for whom employ. ment was found amounted to 2,807. It is stated that, of the persons placed in work, less than 20 per cent. have returned to the relief list. The foregoing paragraphs give examples of various attempts which are being made to avoid the demoralizing effect of the grant of outdoor relief without any conditions. It will be seen that they fall short in varying degrees of the standard set by the Relief Regulation Order, 1911. It must not be thought, however, that this standard is impossible of attainment. The recently published return (Cmd. 3006) of able-bodied pauperism shows that, in June last, outdoor relief was administered strictly in accordance with the Regulations in 206 of the 631 Unions, and that in more than onethird of the remaining Unions the departures from the Regulations were not numerous. It is the policy of the Minister to effect by as rapid stages as local circumstances may permit a return to the standard of the Order. As has been stated above, a beginning has been made with a number of Boards of Guardians whose methods of administration were found to need improvement, and it is hoped to make considerable further progress by means of investigations, correspondence and conferences between the Inspectors and the Guardians, reinforced, if necessary, by the Minister's power to withhold approval of relief given in contravention of the Order, with the resulting disallowance and surcharge of expenditure by the District Auditor. Hitherto this power has only been exercised in a limited number of cases, but it may prove necessary to extend its exercise should further pressure be needed to induce Boards of Guardians who are able, but unwilling, to impose reasonable conditions upon the grant of outdoor relief. It should be added, however, that most of the Boards of Guardians who have hitherto been approached have shown willingness to consider the Minister's recommendations, although they may not as yet be in full sympathy with his objections. With a view to enabling able-bodied men to seek work, applications have been received from some Unions to permit able-bodied men to remain outside, or to take their discharge from the Institution while their wives and children continued to be relieved in the Institution. There are obvious objections to this form of assistance, which tends to diminish the sense of responsibility of the head of the family towards his dependants; there is also the risk of an unscrupulous person leaving his dependants permanently chargeable to the Guardians. Even in cases where the man has been successful in obtaining work, there is no assurance that suitable accommodation will be found, or that the family will be removed from the Institution; the continuance of relief in such circuinstances almost invariably conflicts with the well-established principle that relief should not be granted to persons in full-time employment and in receipt of regular wages. Increase of Relief at Holiday Time. Reference has been made in an earlier paragraph to the tendency of the numbers in receipt of relief to rise at holiday time. This increase is confined to domiciliary relief and is generally accompanied or preceded by a marked decrease in the numbers in receipt of institutional relief. The following figures for England and Wales show the fluctuations at Easter 1927 in a remarkable way. It should be remembered that the normal seasonal decline was then taking place : Week ended. Increase or decrease on previous week. The marked decrease in the number in receipt of institutional relief which took place in the week before Easter, and to a less extent in Easter week itself, may perhaps be explained by a natural desire on the part of convalescent inmates to take their discharge before the holiday. The big increase in the number in receipt of domiciliary relief is more important and more difficult to explain. Taking note of the decreases during the first two and the last two weeks of the period covered by the above table it might be expected that but for the holiday period the average weekly decrease would have continued at about 7,000 per week. This estimate is supported by |