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Holidays for Old People:
The holiday scheme whereby old people get a seaside holiday during off season months
of May and September, at reduced rates, continued during 1957, and was operated by the
various Old People's Clubs in the Borough. In addition 50 old people were given a free
holiday as part of the Southall Borough Charter Anniversary Celebrations.
Other Services:
A service for the provision of cheap laundry and a cheap boot and shoe service are
available. The North Thames Gas Board offers a free service of inspection of the gas appliances
and service pipes in houses of old age pensioners living alone. The reason for this
is to reduce the risk of gas poisoning, a frequent cause of home accidents and fatalities in old
people. The offer includes free replacement of faulty pipes and the free repair of faulty
appliances. To take advantage of this offer, lists of old people living alone are submitted
from the Public Health Department and in due course the homes of the persons nominated
on the lists are visited by the Gas Board officers. Fresh lists continued to be supplied from
time to time during 1957.
Southall Association for the Occupation of the Elderly:
This Association which had been formed in 1956, as stated in the Annual Report for
that year, in April, 1957 succeeded in starting a Work Centre for the occupation of old age
pensioners in a part-time capacity.
The purpose of the scheme was social and for rehabilitation, as the problems of loneliness
and lack of interest among old people who feel they have dropped out of the stream of life
were in need of urgent attention. Funds were obtained from charitable institutions, the
Middlesex County Council and Southall Borough Council promised financial support and
Southall Borough Council provided an attractive Work Centre situated in the Municipal
Sports Ground, one of the public open spaces. The building had been a Day Nursery
formerly, and was very easily adapted for the purpose required. The obtaining of work
was at first a difficult problem, but this became a little easier after an Organiser had been
appointed to take charge of the Centre. Various types of simple work were carried out by
the old people in quite a satisfactory way, indeed as the firms supplying the work were
expected to pay the proper rate for work, it was essential that the work should be completed
to their satisfaction. The numbers of workers starting from 10 increased by the end of the
year to 40, and the types of work from two simple processes, one of carding buttons and
the other of sorting mixed metallic wastes from a large engineering company, increased
so that at the end of the year six types of work were being provided and the old people could
be put on the jobs which were most suited to their capabilities.
Any old age pensioner was eligible to apply for work and once taken on was kept on
whether his or her output could be considered significant or not. It was realised by the
workers that a flat rate of 10/- per week for a ten hour week was certainly much less than the
younger healthy pensioner would be able to obtain in the labour market, but they also realised
that as they grew older or ill and less able to do very much work this wage would not alter.
The scheme can never become self-supporting, but it is already showing great benefits in
the social and even physical well-being of the people who are working. The friendly
and happy atmosphere in the work rooms is quite a remarkable thing to see, and so is the
individual improvement of newcomers seen on their first entry when asking to join the
scheme and again a few weeks later.
National Assistance Act, 1948, Section 47:
National Assistance (Amendment) Act, 1951:
No case was dealt with under these powers during 1957.
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