SIR WILLIAM CHANCE'S NOTE.
I am asked what advantage will accrue to the Guardians of the Poor if the present National Insurance Bill passes into law. I take this to mean what will be its effect on pauperism and poor relief expenditure, because Boards of Guardians will certainly obtain no advantage from the Bill. There can be no doubt that it should tend to reduce the number of outdoor paupers ; but I am afraid that indoor pauperism, which is the main Poor Law expense, will be very little affected. On the contrary, the tendency may be first to increase. I doubt, therefore, whether the rate- payers will obtain much benefit (if any) from the Bill.
Take sick insurance. The lOs.-a-week payment to a man with a large family, and therefore a high rent to pay, will probably not suffice for his wants, and the payment will have to be supplemented from the rates. Then, under the disablement benefit, can 5s. a week be expected to keep a man off the Poor Law ?
On the other hand, the ratepayers should be benefited by the medical, maternity, and sanatorium portions of the Bill. But how about the taxpayer ? One must not forget that pauperism hangs to a large extent upon rents, and the price of the necessaries of life. The unfortunate effect of all legislation of this kind must be to raise these, and to make it more difficult for the poor to make both ends meet. The £25,000,000 which the Bill will cost the community, added to the £12,000,000 by the Old Age Pensions Acts, the main burden of which must ultimately be borne by the wage-earning classes, can from the above causes only tend to increase dependence. I really, therefore, cannot see that much benefit will in the end result to the Poor Law, or to the already overburdened ratepayers, from the Bill, though it may be a certain amount of relief to them for a time.
I have never myself been able to appreciate the distinction made between aid from the taxes and aid from the rates, or why the one should be held to pauperize less than the other. I am confident that economy in public expenditure would do more to benefit the Poor Law and the poor than will any number of measures of the kind referred to. (Signed) W. CHANCE.
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