View report page

8
to note the chief facts concerning the social welfare
of the residents in the Borough.
We are still faced with the fact that a substantial
percentage of the adult population is unemployed,
while a further large section is on short time or earning
a very precarious livelihood by casual work. Unemployment
Benefit, Public Assistance and the help of
relatives and friends have done much to prevent the
worst results of this lowered standard of living. Gross
forms of malnutrition are not evident. It is nevertheless
disquieting that a substantial portion of the
population should be subsisting at such a low level
that sub-standard nutrition is more or less inevitable
with its consequence of lowered resistance to disease.
The administration of public assistance is in the
hands of the London County Council. I have been
furnished, by the courtesy of the local Public Assistance
Officer, with the following figures concerning
public assistance granted during the year.
The grave state of unemployment and poverty in
the Borough is indicated by the large number of
persons receiving public assistance (apart from those
obtaining medical relief only) which was 5,798 at the
end of 1934.