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The Workhouse in Denmark

From S Wales District Conference 1905. DANISH POOR LAWS. We will now direct our attention to the system of poor relief which has been adopted in Denmark, and which has been well described as a combination of expedients for securing to the destitute the treatment they individually merit. It is based upon two laws passed in 1891 — the Poor Law Reform and the Old Age Relief Bill. These measures came into effect in 1892 ; and although it may be too early to judge of their ultimate effect, they have undoubtedly worked well up to the present, and there is good promise for the future. Administration. The administration of poor relief, old age relief, as well as pauper relief, is vested in the local authorities, in rural districts in a Committee of the Communal Council, and in towns in a Committee of the Munici- pality. Attached to many of them, in addition to certain paid officials, there is an Honorary Visiting Com- mittee, who regularly visit the poor, urging them to spend their money wisely and to see that they take care of their children. In rural communes the Poor Law authorities are supervised by the County Councils. The Chairman, who is a paid official appointed by the State, is the higher authority, to whom there is a right of appeal. He watches over the working of the Poor Laws in his district, the accounts are submitted to him, and he has a voice in deciding the form of relief given. In provincial towns the Poor Law authorities are supervised by the Minister of the Interior, who is the supreme authority for towns and communes. In Copenhagen they have a special department presided over by the Third Section Burgomaster, appointed by the Council subject to the veto of the King. This department controls the poor relief, old age relief, also all charities and charitable institutions of the city. For Poor Law purposes the city is divided into twelve dis- tricts, arranged in three groups ; each district is under the care of a superintendent, and each group in charge of an inspector. All are specially trained, and devote their whole time to the work, and they act in conjunc- tion with the police. A district superintendent deals with pauper relief only ; his work lies for the most part among the lazy, thriftless, and worthless. A group inspector is directly responsible to the Burgomaster ; he supervises the work of the superintendents, checks their accounts. and is chief of the special bureau that administers old age relief. All claims for this form of relief must be sent to him, the three group inspectors being the special Guardians of all the respectable aged poor of the city, just as the twelve district superintendents are the Guardians of all the paupers. All Danish citizens have the right to be supported by the community as pensioners or as paupers, but no one is a pauper except by his own fault, and infinite trouble is taken to prevent any deserving person becoming a pauper owing to misfortune, temporary distress, illness, or accident. Temporary Relief. The Poor Law officer in Denmark is the friend of the poor in all ways. It is part of his regular functions to help them to find work, to find a shelter (not in the Workhouse) for bona-fide working men in search of work, to help with a loan those in temporary distress, and all this is not regarded as pauper relief. All persons stricken by the hand of God are not paupers, however much help they get. A man may send his idiot child to an institution, where it is kept entirely at the public expense, and will not lose his rights as a citizen ; and the same holds good with regard to the blind, deaf, and dumb, the consumptive, the epileptic, and the cripple. Money given to those burnt out of hearth and home, and to those who, belonging to a sick club, find it necessary to obtain additional help from the Poor Law authorities, either for his own cure or for the support of his wife and children, does not pauperise. Classification. All poor in Denmark are most carefully classified. Their character is closely inquired into. I f good, and only temporary help is required, a grant is made out of the free fund. If the record, though good, is not immacu- late, and help is needed for a longer period, he is given out-relief. Applicants who belong to the doubtful class, may- hap lazy and thriftless rather than vicious, are sent to the Workhouse, unless they be old and feeble, in which case they are lodged in the Poorhouse. Institutions. The Poorhouse is a home for the fairly respectable and the old or incurably invalided or feeble. The inmates are divided into three classes — (i) The respect- able, who have just missed ranking as old age pen- sioners ; (2) the fairly respectable ; and (3) those who have been found wanting. All the inmates are fed alike and are kindly treated, but the first class inmates have greater freedom, and are shown more personal consideration than the second class, and the second than the third. The latter, indeed, have neither privileges or freedom ; they are entirely separated from their fellow-inmates, even taking their waJks in a part of the grounds set apart for them. No one, however, need stay long in the third class ; good conduct soon promotes to a higher class, and bad conduct in the gher classes degrade to the lower. None of the inmates are forced to work, but may do so if they choose. Old women knit and sew, old men make shoes and many other things, and any little they earn they are allowed to keep and spend on anything excepting drink. Most work for the institution, helping in the kitchen, the garden, or house-cleaning, and are paid a few pence per week, which is a source of keen delight to them. Workhouse. — These are of two classes. The in- mates of the one work on the land, and of the other in workshops. All able-bodied paupers are sent to one or the other of these houses, and are carefully classified, the more worthy being kept from the less worthy, and are given certain privileges, such as leave on one day per week to look for work, and they may be visited by friends. They are all put to work, piece-work whenever possible. In return they have board and lodgings, and if they behave well a small money allow- ance of 7d. or 8d. per week, half of which they may spend on little extras ; the remainder is kept by the officials, and given to the poor folk when they leave. So long as they work well they are treated kindly, but idling is put down with a firm hand, and if they con- duct themselves badly they are sent to a penal Work- house. Classification is followed in these Houses just as in Poorhouses, and the inmates move up or down according to their conduct Penal Workhouses. — These serve as pauper pri- sons for professional loafers, vagrants, and the like, and for the punishment of unruly Workhouse inmates. Persons of this class must stay six months, and are expected to earn what they eat. At the end of six months, if of good conduct, they are passed into the Workhouse, where they are kept until they have over- come their dislike for work, and are prepared to make an effort to earn their own living outside. Discipline is very strict, and they are compelled to work, but are given a small pay, about sd. per week. Half they may spend, and half is saved to be given them when they leave Children are for the most part boarded out as in England. Old Age Relief. A Danish subject who has completed his sixtieth year and is unable to maintain himself may apply for old age relief, to which he is entitled if (a) he has not been convicted of any crime ; {b) his poverty must not be the consequence of his parting with his goods for the benefit of his children, nor caused by a disorderly or extravagant mode of life, or in any way brought about by his own fault ; (c) he must have resided for ten years or upwards in the country, must not have been a pauper, a vagrant, or have begged ; and {d) must not have been convicted of drunkenness or im- morality. In order to obtain old age relief the applicant must prove that he belongs to the respectable poor class, and if he succeeds he takes rank as a pensioner, other- wise he falls under the jurisdiction of the Poor Laws. Pensioners retain their full liberty, their votes, and their rights as citizens. Very full inquiry is made into the merits of each case by the inspector, and if he is satisfied he brings it before the Old Age Committee, t.e. the Burgomaster, a member of the Council, and the three group inspectors, who decide whether the appli- cant is entitled to the relief, and the form it shall take, whether in money or in kind, or free admission to a suitable institution. After admission to relief, the three inspectors act as special Guardians of the pensioners, look after them, see that they are well cared for, and that they conduct themselves properly, for if they are guilty of any act which would have debarred them from receiving the pension, it is taken from them, and they become paupers. In rural districts the Communal Council is the authority dealing with this subject. In fixing the amount of relief granted, the authorities must leave out of consideration any income of the applicant not exceeding loo kroner = ^'5. us. id. per annum, and the law requires that the pension shall be sufficient for the support of the person relieved, and of his family, and for their treatment in case of illness. Old Age Homes. These are reserved exclusively for the aged respect- able poor. The inmates are well looked after ; nave perfect liberty to come and go when they like inside certain limits ; have good food, clothes, and 4d. per week pocket money ; but their conduct must be good ; and if they spend their pocket money on stimu- lants it is stopped for a time, and their liberty is cur- tailed. If they do not amend, they forfeit their privileges and revert to the pauper class. In towns the Homes are large and well appointed, but after all it is the small Homes in the country which are the most attractive, situated as many of them are in old-fashioned gardens, the inmates living together as a happy family, each with their little private room, to which they can retire if they so choose; in small villages a better class working man and his wife are installed in a comfort- ably furnished house, and the respectable aged poor who are homeless are put to live with them under the close surveillance of the communal authorities. Relief in these Homes does not pauperise. Incidence of Cost. Half of the cost of old age relief is paid by the State, chiefly out of the yield of the Beer Tax, and the local authorities defray the remainder. Cost. In the year 1901 the full cost of pauper relief in- cluding all charges of administration - 3s. ^^d. per head of the population, and the full cost of old age reliefs 2S. 4|d., so that the cost of both » 5s. 8d., whilst in the same year the cost of pauper relief alone in England = 7s. 2d. per head of the population. We have now set out briefly the two systems of Poor Laws which obtain in England and Denmark, and may ask ourselves which is the better calculated to effectually relieve the respectable poor, and to check the ever-increasing cost of relieving the vagrants and unworthy poor which threatens the nation with as great a danger as that from which it was saved by the Poor Law Amend- ment Act of 1834. It may be that the Danish laws in their entirety would not prove acceptable to us, although personally I hold the opinion that they are far in advance of ours, if looked at only as a means of reducing the cost ; but surely if this point of view were not so favourable, there is a higher motive that should actuate us, and that is, to lighten the burden of the respectable poor by relieving them of their greatest fear— the dread of becoming paupers ; and anything we may do in this direction will of a surety be a blessing to the nation. As tending to this end I venture to throw out the following suggestions : — 1. That outdoor relief granted to the respectable poor, and to the children of able-bodied widows, and temporary relief to the able-bodied on account of ill- ness, by way of loan or otherwise, shall not carry with it the stigma of pauperism, nor the loss of civic rights. 2. That in our present Workhouses greater care shall be exercised in the classification of inmates, and that all who are deemed worthy to be placed in the higher class shall be considered recipients of poor relief, be given greater liberty, and retain their civic rights, those in the lower classes only being regarded as paupers. 3. That the professional beggars, and all of the vagrant class, be dealt with in penal working colonies to be provided by the State. 4. That working men in search of work be given at the place of departure a card of identification, on producing which tney shall be provided with a com- fortable bed and good food, and passed on without being detained to fulfil any task, and that such tem- porary relief shall not pauperise them. 5. That greater care shall be exercised in the appointment of relieving officers, and that large Unions and combinations of smaller Unions shall appoint well -qualified inspectors, whose sole duty shall be to superintend and check the work of re- lieving officers in their district. 6. That Guardians be empowered to order into Workhouses those whom they consider fit subjects for indoor relief, and into penal working colonies those whom they consider unfit subjects for Workhouses. 7. That the numerous Acts governing the relief of the poor, and the various orders of the Local Government Board regarding the same, shall be codified so as to be readily accessible to, and easily understood by, those to whom the task of their ad- ministration is entrusted. In conclusion, I wish to acknowledge my indebted- ness for much of the information given in this paper to **The History of the English Poor Law,"* by Sir George Nicholls, K.C.B. ; to Mr Thomas Mackays ** Supplementary Volume" to the same work, and to *;The Danish Poor Relief System,'' t by Miss Edith Sellers — all which works I commend to those who desire fuller information.

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