Promotion: Peter Sharkey warns squeeze on pensions could worsen – North Norfolk News
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Even in its earliest form, when the state stepped in to replace a punitive and widely disliked ‘poor law’, the UK state pension could never be described as generous.
According to professor Pat Thane of the University of London, while the state sought to improve conditions for the elderly by introducing an ‘old age pension’ in 1909, the payment “didn’t provide enough to live on and was [subject to] a very stringent means test”.
Civil servants known as ‘pensions officers’ visited people in their homes to assess claimants’ entitlement before making recommendations to a pensions committee. Only after the committee approved a claim was the applicant, who had to be aged at least 70, authorised to receive the princely sum of five shillings (25p) each week. Married couples were entitled to receive a maximum of seven-and-sixpence (37.5p).
Bizarrely, the pension could be reduced if an applicant owned too much furniture. Payments could be denied altogether…
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