Note 103 — Chapter II

This term, Relief in Kind, has always been limited to food, though the character of the food has been varied. Medicine and "medical extras" supplied to the paupers in their homes have been included in the term Outdoor Medical Relief. The provision of clothing and bedding to the outdoor poor—classed as ordinary Outdoor Relief—though permitted, has never been encouraged by the Central Authority. (Official Circular, 10th November 1840, No. 9, p. 117; Ibid., July 1850, No. 39 N.S., p. 108; see also Selections from the Correspondence of the Local Government Board, vol. ii., 1880, p. 71.) The provision of tools or implements of trade was considered not to be of the nature of relief, and therefore not legal. It was expressly prohibited by the Outdoor Relief Regulation Order of 1852 (art. 3). Payment of rent (except the provision of temporary lodging in urgent and sudden necessity, or for housing a lunatic) was from the outset strictly prohibited. (See Outdoor Relief Prohibitory Order of 1844, art. 5, and Outdoor Relief Regulation Order of 1852, art. 3.) This prohibition of payment of rent seems to have been considered of importance by the Poor Law Commissioners. The impracticability of preventing ordinary outdoor relief from being applied in payment of the pauper's rent seems only gradually to have dawned upon the Poor Law Board. In 1852 it was explained that although the Order "prohibits the Guardians from paying the rent for a pauper either directly or indirectly, it does not prevent them from allowing him such relief as under all the circumstances of the case his necessities may require; it will rest with the pauper to dispose of the relief afforded to him in such manner as he may think fit." (Poor Law Board to Hemsworth Union, 19th October 1852; in House of Commons, No. 111 of 1852-3, p. 96.) A similar decision was given in 1902. (See Local Government Chronicle, 9th August 1902, p. 805.) The prohibition still remains in force, but is accordingly not now regarded as of importance.