Casualties of inflation
Joan Woolicombe
i What is really happening to the thousands of men and women on small fixed incomes, as they wrestle with the ends that never . Meet? These casualties of inflation are not only the elderly, though a high proportion of the eight million or so of retirement age and over is involved, there are thousands of men and women of all ages and types: young Couples whom circumstances have treated savagely, those in poorly paid professions, those liv!rig on savings that once seemed enough ', on annuities made up Of the plunging pound ... all these and more to whom 'industrial action ' is not possible. ..," But nobody need starve in the Welfare State." They can, however, be very hungry and very Cold. And it is a sign of our day and age that there is a network of Charitable organisations all of them fully extended, giving help !,0 those who need it, so often to People like us ' whose pride has kept them from revealing their Plight until they had to do so. Rightly, these organisations resPect the confidence that their beneficiaries give them but it is Possible to describe how they Meet the need that presses harder every year. Not statistics — humans. The sub-title to one of the better known organisations, RUKBA (The Royal United Kingdom Ben eficent . Association) is ' Independence in Old Age' and 'for the support of gentlefolk in need ' 7-by means of annuities the small Iptomes are boosted and in addition RUKBA helps to maintain its annuitants in homes suited to them when they can no longer lye alone and has two homes of its own. Clothing and furnishings can be provided as well as provisions and invalid foods. It is a sombre thought that all this help iS vital to thousands living straightened lives. When the crunch comes, what goes first? Holidays, of course: then anything that can be done witliout, that costs money: new Clothes, household replacements, visits to friends and any entertaining — while the quarterly nightMare of rent and rates has to be `aced and only the cheapest foods can be bought.
It Elderly
was The Friends of the & Gentlefolks Help who had the imagination to develop a Lrest house for tired women — a Manor in Devon given them and endowed under a trust. Take the naSe of Miss G, who had maintained and nursed a sick mother
for three years on a small fixed income. On the death of her mother she had to return to nursing, which was her job — but tired out and in need of a respite, she was offered and took two weeks at The Old Manor, Colyford, for which she paid two guineas a week all-in. Here with rest and good food and the unobtrusive kindness and company of thirteen other ladies, also resting there, I she soon picked up and could take up her profession again.
Who more needed than the Professional Classes Aid Council? What sort of help is needed? Take the case of an economist, who had two years of illness and a slow convalescence and faced the slow return to work — getting a post — with the burden of a wife and four children to support after the en-, ding of sickness benefits. Debts mounted as he battled on and there was not enough for fuel in the depths of winter and he was faced with court orders. Application was made to the PCAC, and a block grant given for urgent .debts and clothing grants for the .children. Mr K. found a post and his health is now excellent — once !that corner was turned. It is symptomatic of our times that there are five major and some smaller charities concerned with helping our clergy. We have accepted the fact that they are poorly paid — as indeed most of them are. When they die there is not much to leave. A vicar's widow was left with five children, two still being educated. Pending the issue of clergy-widows and the state widows pension the Corporation of the Sons of theClergy gave her an emergency grant for rent, rates and school expenses. A vicar of forty-three had five children, a large vicarage to keep up in a large parish. His stipend just covered his essentials and the end of each month was a nightmare of unpaid bills. He was one whom the Poor Clergy Relief Corporation helped. The list of applicants to the National Benevolent Institution, contained one entry, against which the return of income was NIL. This lady, a onetime SRN, had had to retire at sixty-five because of varicosed legs. She is ineligible for a state pension since she has not, enough contributions and she was living on her savings — £800 — until the NBI took up her case. Exploring the possibilities of help for the casualties of our affluent age, I was told by an experienced social worker that the. " Social Security people " are helpful, tactful and sympathetic. And my questions to them have been promptly and carefully answered — there is an excellent booklet, The Right to Help, which is a good guide to the supplementary benefits and some admirable leaflets, one of which deals with supplementary allowances for people under pension age. It cannot be too strongly urged that people who are desperately hard up, should not shrink from asking advice and help from their own local office. Or, if they prefer their Citizens' Advice Bureau.
Meanwhile, as most of us in professions and occupations know, every one has its own charity. It is well to contribute while and when you can—and later, if in need, ask their advice! Behind closed curtains of decent pride so many 'people like us ' are fighting a hard battle. But. so often, there is help.. . .
List of organisations and authorities who help to bridge the gap between the ends that never meet, and some sources of information.
1 The Central Register of Charities, St Albans House, Haymarket, SW1 2 The Department of Health & Social Security 3 The Church Commissioners 4 The Professional Classes Aid Council, 10 St Christopher's Place, WI 5 Friends of the Elderly & Gentlefolks Help, 42 Ebury Street, SW I 6 National Benevolent Institution, 61 Bayswater Road, W2 7 Royal United Kingdom Beneficent Association (Rubka), 13 Bedford Street, Strand WC2E 9HH 8 Miss Smallwood's Society, Lancaster House, Malvern, Worcs 9 Corporation of Sons of the Clergy, 1 Dean Trench Street, SW I 10 Poor Clergy Relief Corporation, 27 Medway Street, SW1 11 Distressed Gentlefolks' Aid Association, Vicarage Gate House, Vicarage Gate, W8 12 Incomes Data, 140 Great Portland Street, WI (Report 98) 13 Transport & General Workers' Union, Smith Square, SW1 (Broad sheet: The Better Deal) 14 Help the Aged, 45 Pembroke Street, St Aldgates, Oxford 15 Teachers Benevolent Association, Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, WC1
.16— Officers' Families' Fund, 56 Regency Street, London SWI 17 Royal Medical. Benevolent Fund, 24 Kings Road, Wimbledon SW19
18 Musicians benevolent Fund, St Cecilia's House, 16, Ogle Street, W I 19 Royal Literary Fund, 11 Ludgate Hill, EC4
.41). National Advertising Benevolent Society, 62 Gloucester Place, W I H 3HL
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