“It gives me great satisfaction to report that the arrangements, which were necessarily planned at short notice, were carried out with complete success—a result due, to a considerable extent, to the hearty and sympathetic co-operation of the postmasters and their staffs throughout the United Kingdom.
“The first payments took place on New Year's Day 1909, and during the three months ending the 31st March, 7,925,150 Old Age Pension orders were cashed, representing a total sum of £1,904,722.
“In addition to paying the pensions after they had been granted, the Post Office furnished (and continues to furnish) information and assistance to any person desiring to make an application for an Old Age Pension.”
And again, in his report for 1910, the Postmaster-General referred to the matter:—
“The total number of Old Age Pensions paid during the year was 35,167,983, representing an amount of £8,465,231.”
It will be seen from the size of these figures that the Post Office has taken upon itself a huge amount of extra business. The old people of the country have an additional reason for looking upon the Department as in a peculiar sense the friend of the poor. The weekly visit of the pensioners enables them to become known to the officials, and the pensioners in their turn grow attached to the building in which they experience weekly the joy of possession. There are few pleasanter human sights in the country to-day than to watch the faces of the pensioners as they leave the post office. Moreover, the meeting of the pensioners, all on the same errand, is having curious results. The Postmaster-General, in his wildest dreams of the possibilities of the Post Office, never perhaps saw it pictured as a matrimonial bureau in which Darby and Joan, going thither to receive their Old Age Pensions, would cast sheep's eyes at each other, and ultimately surround the dole of the State with a halo of romance. In a village near Dudley, a few months after the introduction of Old Age Pensions, two old people were united in wedlock. The bridegroom had seventy-five years to his credit and the bride admitted to seventy-four summers. They had frequently met at the post office, grew to be friendly towards each other, and discovered perhaps a touch of romantic love in their hearts. Anyhow they decided to pool their pensions.
There have been many such instances. It is evident that many of the lady pensioners are now regarded, for the first time perhaps in their lives, as “catches,” and I am afraid several have sacrificed the certain pension for the possible romance.
One of the most amusing incidents of the kind was brought to light over the payment of a Savings Bank warrant. The sub-postmaster was asked to satisfy himself as to the depositor's identity “in view of the shaky nature of her signature.” The sub-postmaster replied: “I have paid the warrant. Depositor an old age pensioner, aged seventy-seven, well known at this office. The shakiness of signature was pointed out to her, and she explained that she was very excited that morning, having just put up the banns. Marriage at the Old Church. Ceremony will be on May 15th.”
Of course there are abundant humours and tragedies revealed in the inquiries made at the post office by would-be pensioners. What desperate efforts will they not resort to for the purpose of proving their age qualification! An applicant at Monaghan, when asked for some evidence of age, replied, “I remember eating a fish which was blown out of Drumloo Lake the night of the big wind, 6th Jan. 1839.”
And some persons seem to think that by the payment of the pension the Post Office is under an obligation to see that it is spent properly. A postmistress received this letter from the relative of a pensioner: “To the Postmaster. Dear Madam, you are requested by order to chastise J—— M—— of B—— for drinking his pension on Saturday, an also on a few occasions this month has been found drunk, an if you don't write to him and give him a sharp advice I shall proceed against you without further notice.”