Memorandum on the Beveridge Report
1943-02 1943 1940s 28 pages Clearly such old age pensioners are getting now (with a Means Test) as much as they would get in 1965 from the Beveridge Report (with no Means Test). The same applies to married couples who get in 1965 the sum of 40/- without a Means Test. Under existing supplementary pe...
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| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
London : Communist Party of Great Britain
February 1943
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/AEC744F6-6400-4B56-86B5-91BE52C17D77 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/3F7C3344-B4A3-471F-8749-565D5D67AEE1 |
| Summary: | 1943-02
1943
1940s
28 pages
Clearly such old age pensioners are getting now (with a Means Test) as much as they would get in 1965 from the Beveridge Report (with no Means Test). The same applies to married couples who get in 1965 the sum of 40/- without a Means Test. Under existing supplementary pensions they get (with a Means Test) 32/- per week, plus 5/- war bonus, in other words 37/- per week. In addition they can get a clothing allowance and a rent allowance. Anyone who has examined the conditions of the old age pensioners knows that these scales do not provide a reasonable level of subsistence, and we strongly recommend that as in the case of the sick or the unemployed, the benefits proposed by the Report be increased by 33 per cent. to 30/- for a single man or woman and 30/- for a man and wife. We believe that such pensions should come into operation in 1945 for all those pensioners who have subscribed to the existing contributory pensions schemes and that they shall be given as a right, without the pensioners being subjected to a Means Test. We suggest that a similar scale be adopted as the basis of assistance old age pensions which should be given on the existing basis to old people who have made no contribution to contributory old age pensions. With regard to the new classes of people who will contribute for old age pensions for the first time under the Beveridge scheme, we advocate that they should get full pension rights after 10 years' contributions. THE PROBLEM OF RENT The subsistence scales of the Beveridge scheme assume post-war expenditure on rent of 8/2 per week for a single person and 12/- for a married couple. But the average actual rent in London is 16/- per week. So that to pay the same benefits in London as in the rest of the country means in effect that the London citizen will be forced 14
15X/2/103/272 |
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |