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Unemployment Assistance Board papers

Archive Series: MS 1986/2 Contains digital media

Details

Type of record: Archive

Title: Unemployment Assistance Board papers

Level: Series

Classmark: MS 1986/2

Creator(s): Lynes, Tony (1929-2014)(); Unemployment Assistance Board (1934-)()

Date(s): 1923-2005

Language: English

Size and medium: manuscript papers, typescript papers; 18 boxes

Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/483624

Description

Box 7 contains SSRC applications and correspondence; draft of chapters of Lynes’ book on Unemployment Assistance Board (UAB).


Box 8 contains Report on public assistance, 1972; Penguin Guide to supplementary benefits, 1972; Readers’ Digest Law Book, 1972; Drafting of French Pensions Book, 1982; UAB papers, the family means test; Rucker Report on the break up of the Poor Law, 1946.


Boxes 9-14 contain some of Tony Lynes' research files into the Unemployment Assistance Board 1934-1940. These papers are listed in detail in the handlist attached to this catalogue record.


Boxes 15-19 contain further papers relating to Lynes' research into the Unemployment Assistance Board as follows:


Box 15 includes original memoranda, minutes, regulations mainly from 1930s. It also contains correspondence about UAB board members and proceedings, the 1936 regulations, papers of the Local Advisory Committees, local authorities and voluntary bodies and research on rights, 1933-1991.


Box 16 includes original memoranda, minutes, notes, reports and circular letters about the 'standstill period' debated in 1935, procedures, public relations, employment in full and part time work, crofters and fishermen, race, strikers and welfare. Also includes some of Lynes' manuscript notes, 1933-1939.


Box 17 includes memoranda and minutes about Cases of Special Difficulty, juvenile and adult training, land settlement and wages, 1934-1975.


Box 18 includes memoranda, minutes and circulars about the Household Means Test, winter additions, rent allowances, boarders, leaving home, cohabitation, disregards and income tax, 1931-1971.


Box 19 includes memoranda, letters and minutes about the scale of relief payments to the poor, urgent and exceptional needs, extra nourishment, debts, repatriation and appeals, 1922-1994.


Box 20 includes original accordion file, described as 'Miscellaneous correspondence relating to social security and Tony’s papers' filed alphabetically'. Dates covered are mainly 1986- 2005, and correspondents include many well-known political figures, including Margaret Beckett, Frank Field and David Willetts.


Box 21 includes contents of two original files labelled 'Union Coalition for Social Security, 1986-87'. Printed pamphlets on the Social Security Act 1986. Typed correspondence. Newspaper cuttings.


Box 22 comprises typescript chapters of Tony Lynes' book 'Re-inventing the dole: a history of the Unemployment Assistance Board, 1934-1990'.

Includes unlabelled file mainly of tables. Includes chapters: 1. Transitional payments, 2. The Board from conception to birth, 3. The Bill in Parliament, 4. The Board, 5. Setting up the machinery, 6. The National Minimum, 7. The Household Means Test.


Box 23 comprises typescript chapters of Tony Lynes’ book, 'Re-inventing the dole: a history of the Unemployment Assistance Board', 1934-1990'. Includes chapters: 8. Political intervention, 9. Breakdown and stand still, 10. Back to the drawing board, 11. The importance of being ernest, 12. A new start, 13. Takeover from the Poor Law, 13a. Housing costs, 13b. Resources and disregards, 14. Supplementation and waiting days, 15. Wage stop. Winter and C.O. L. [Cost of living], 17. Training.


Box 24 comprises typescript chapters of Tony Lynes’s book, 'Re-inventing the dole: a history of the Unemployment Assistance Board, 1934-1990'.

Includes chapters: 18. C.S.D. [Cases of Special Difficulty], 19. Discretionary additions, 20. Exceptional needs, 21. Home visits and callers. [No files for 22-29], 30. Leaving home. Loose printed pages of the book with some MS notes. Tables of Social Fund data 1990 and miscellaneous correspondence. File labelled 'Background material, indexed' with file cards, printed matter and MS.


The chapters eventually appeared as: 1. The crisis and the Means Test; 2. The revolt of the Relief Committees; 3. Chamberlain’s conversion; 4. The plan takes shape; 5. The bill in Parliament; 6. The Board; 7. Setting up the machinery; 8. The national minimum; 9. The household means test: (1) Earnings; 10. The household means test: (2) Other resources; 11. Political intervention; 12. The cuts; 13. The standstill; 14. Back to the drawing board; 15. Pride and compromise: (1) Localism; 16. Pride and compromise: (2) the Board and the Cabinet; 17. A new start; 18. Take-over from the Poor Law; 19. Housing costs; 20. The benefit gap: Supplementation and Waiting Days; 21. Work incentives and the wage stop; 22. Winter and the cost of living; 23. Reconditioning the unemployed; 24. 'Cases of special difficulty'; 25. Discretionary additions; 26. Lump sum payments; 27. The caller problem; 28. Leaving home; 29. Appeals.

Biography or history

The Unemployment Assistance was set up in 1934 because of the high levels of inter-war poverty in Britain. The Board administered a system of means-tested benefits. It was a government department with its own budget run by six board members. The members were appointed by the Minster of Labour, but acted independently of him.

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