Assistance to Guardians to Carry out Works
In a number of cases the Minister of Health has facilitated the undertaking by Guardians of works of excavation, road improvement and the like for the provision of employment, and has allowed a variation of the regulations in force so as to enable Guardians undertaking such works to employ direct labour upon them instead of, as in the ordinary course, resorting to a contractor. In this way Guardians are enabled to select the labour from the ranks of those already destitute. In other cases in which Guardians have themselves been unable to provide any work, arrangements have been made by the Minister of Health by which works, which could not ordinarily be undertaken under the scheme of the Unemployment Grants Committee, are put in hand by the sanitary authorities, the labour engaged being supplied by the Guardians, and, in view of the importance of providing work rather than relief, the Minister has undertaken to give any sanction necessary to cover the contributions made in this connection by the Guardians to the sanitary authorities executing the Works, so long as the poor-rate does not incur a charge greater than the cost of relief which, but for the works, would have had to be given.
Funding of Cost of Relief
The cost of relief is normally a charge upon the current rates. There have been cases where the unexpected increase in the cost of relief resulting from unemployment upset the estimates of annual expenditure made by the Guardians and placed them in serious financial difficulties; and again, others where this annual cost is so heavy as to place an unreasonable immediate burden upon the ratepayers. To meet these abnormal cases, power was given by the Local Authorities (Financial Provisions) Act, 1921, to fund the cost, and for that purpose to authorize the raising of temporary loans for a period not exceeding a maximum of ten years. Temporary loans amounting, up to the middle of July, 1922, to £6,204,776 have been sanctioned by the Minister of Health under this Act, the usual period allowed for repayment being two years, though in several cases as much as five years has been allowed.
Help to Poorer Metropolitan Unions
Poor Law relief in London is always a matter of exceptional difficulty, and there has, since 1867, been a Common Poor Fund, through the agency of which certain Poor Law expenses are pooled and charged to the whole of the unions in London. During the war, this Fund was placed on a stereotyped basis, but with the rise of prices and with the growth of unemployment relief, hardship was caused to the poorer unions. An emergency arrangement was accordingly made for placing this Fund on an unstereotyped basis, much to the advantage of the poorer unions. Later, by the Local Authorities (Financial Provisions) Act, 1921, certain additional expenses in each union, and particularly the cost of out-door relief, so far as this was given within a scale and subject to conditions prescribed by the Minister of Health, were added to the expenses of a union chargeable on London as a whole. By this Act the burden of out-door relief in boroughs such as Poplar has been very greatly lightened by being spread over the wealthier boroughs like Kensington and Westminster. The Minister of Health, by Statutory Rules and Orders 1922, No. 3, prescribed the scale. It is, of course, within the power of Guardians to exceed the scale to meet exceptional needs in any particular case, but not at the cost of the Common Poor Fund.
Assistance to Guardians to Raise Loans
In cases where a Poor Law authority is in danger of being brought to a standstill by inability to raise from other sources loans sanctioned by the Minister for current expenditure, the Minister is empowered himself to advance the necessary money, on such terms and conditions as may be recommended by a Committee established under the chairmanship of Sir Harry Goschen, K.B.E. Up to the middle of March 1922, it had only been necessary to place three applications before this Committee.