WEST HAM POOR RELIEF.

Shannon News, 6 September 1927, Page 2

WEST HAM POOR RELIEF.

SAVING OF NEARLY A MILLION. LONDON, August 3. Although the number of persons receiving relief has dropped from 69,000 to 35,000, the number of cases from 28,000 to 14,000, and the cost from an average of £28,000 a Aveek to £9OOO a Aveek, out relief is not, in the vieAV of the Board,-yet reduced .to its loAvest possible level. This is the conclusion in their second report of Sir Alfred Woodgate (chairman), Mr. A. Beal, and Mr. J. Topping, who Avere appointed by the Minister of Health to administer the duties of the West Ham Board of Guardians. They add:—

“The board have constantly in mind the fact that for the. week ended May 29, 1920, there Avere only, in this Union, 3550 cases on relief, embracing 8335 persons, at a total cost of £2279. The board have not yet discovered sufficient reason to warrant the present number of 14,722 cases, embracing 35,000 persons, at a cost of £9685 per Aveek. The board consider that by steady administration it should be possible to reduce the present numbers and cost so that they more nearly conform to the numbers and the cost of May, 1920.” The report deals Avith the period from November Ito May 31. During this time there Avere, rvith one or tAVo exceptions, Aveeldy reductions in the number of cases and persons in receipt of poor relief,*'and also in the cost. The average weekly cost per head during the last half-year under the old board’s administration; Avas 8s 5-}d, as against 5s 6£d at the date of the report . The estimate of expenditure for the half-year ending September 30 amounts to £759,892, compared Avith an actual expenditure for the corresponding halfyear of 1926 of £1,002,445. Repayments of loans granted during the general strike aA r erage £l5O per Aveek. The sum actually repaid totalled £5649, and the amount promised to be repaid was £14,601. , When the present board took office the total staff in the service of the Guardians numbered 1656, at an annual cost of £244,022. On May 31 this year, the staff emploA r ed numbered 1394, costing £197,252 Os'lld. The financial position appears to be that an annual budget of not more than £1,380,000 Avill suffice for the administrative needs of the union, as compared Avith the last full year’s expenditure of the old board, i.e., the vear ending March 31, 1926, of £2,345,910.