oggbashan
Dying Truth seeker
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2002
- Posts
- 56,017
Og, there is a sentence in there somewhere. An occasional penster, but always a punster was he.
pensionary - noun PENSIONER; esp: HIRELING
pensioner - noun 1. a person who receives or lives on a pension 2. obs a. GENTLEMAN-AT-ARMS b. RETAINER c. MERCENARY, HIRELING
UK - 1908 Old Age Pensions Act - introduced first general old age pension paying a non-contributory amount of between 10p and 25p a week, from age 70, on a means-tested basis from January 1 1909 - "Pensions Day". This was introduced during the Liberal government of David Lloyd-George.
In the 1911 Census of England and Wales, some of my wife's ancestors and their relations proudly declared themselves as "Old Age Pensioner". Before that date, the only provision for indigent old people was the workhouse. Although old and infirm people were treated better in the workhouse than the able-bodied unemployed it was still a miserable place to be.
The few shillings a week that an Old Age Pensioner received meant that they could live with dignity - and they appreciated that.
PS. Our local workhouse, retitled a 'hospital' was accommodating elderly frail people until the late 1970s. The conditions had improved dramatically since the 1910s but it was still an unhappy place to be. I'm not sure that the conditions in many residential homes for the frail elderly are any better now than the former workhouse was in the 1970s.
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