Old Age Pensions- 1908

[christine liava'a]

No-one has yet answered my query on another thread, so I'll ask again.

"In 1908 Lloyd George introduced the Old Age Pensions Act that provided between 1s. and 5s. a week to people over seventy. "

How did people prove their age and eligibility?

Was a list made every year of new recipients for old age pension?

Are these records available?

Receiving an old age pension could be another source of birthdate, if nothing else can be found.

Obviously the original old age pensioners were not soldiers in WW1, but some of them had probably been soldiers in earlier wars, and the survivors of WW1 would have started receiving their old age pensions soon after WW2.

Also, did the survivors of WW1 get disability pensions?

Where are the records for these?

[j.r.f]

CHRISTINE

Iam under the impresion that registration of births in U.K. was compulsory from 1833,this i will check,and so the registered birth sertificate wuold have been avaliable in 1908.copies of birth certs are avaliable from govt. department.I will check on all this and get back.

cheers.

JOHN.

[christine liava'a]

In theory, yes.

but it seems by the number of people here having trouble finding birth registrations, that it may not have always happened.

but, if you survived to 70, practically everyone would have claimed their old age pension

and, in regard to disability or war pensions, surely most of those who returned would have received one or the other eventually.

[Doug Lewis]

Christine

I'm not sure if this will answer you question but this site has the a copy of the legislation which might help.

http://www.lse.ac.uk/library/pamphlets/Soc...ts/pensions.htm

I have read through HD7/177 "The National Insurance Act" which lays out requirements of the legislation.

Regards Doug

[dycer]

Christine,

As one who works in the British Old Age Pensions Department I'll try and answer your question.I cannot directly answer your question about WW1 veterans and colleagues with this experience have long retired.

If someone born in UK wishes to claim a Pension they should produce a Birth Certificate(obtaining a copy if necessary).If for valid reasons they cannot produce one secondary evidence can be excepted.Only example I saw of this was a daughter of a large family whose father just forgot to register the birth and the other daughters were able to confirm their sister had never been registered.

As an aside I had experience of WW2 veterans pension applications and had no problems accepting secondary evidence from men born in the then Communist zones of Germany ,Poland,etc who did not wish to return/contact the relevant authorities!

Although British Legislation requires people to do things it is not a Totalitarean Society and the good old compromise still exists.

I appreciate this can be a nuisance to serious researchers.

Finally as I said in an earlier post the British Pension Authorities do not keep copies of Birth Cerificates and due to the vast amount of paper that was generated in the pre-computer age we are discussing destroyed the pension applications and associated paperwork on a regular basis.

George

[dycer]

Just thought of another case where I determined a British date of birth for pension purposes

A man admitted to a mental hospital following an air-raid in WW2.No papers,no family need I go on.

George

[Muerrisch]

she-who-must-be-obeyed is an amateur geneologist. Says births England and Wales had to be registered from 1837 but there was no penalty for non-registration until 1875. Non-registration meant no birth certificate. Incidentally the Army 1914 and before only demanded a birth certificate for boy service.