New Year's Day, 1909, was a milestone in English social history.

It marked the start of the government's old age pension scheme and, as the Surrey Comet reported the following day, there were "pathetic and amusing incidents at the post office".

The scheme was born of the Old Age Pensions Act of 1908 and was never intended to be the be-all-and-end-all income for the aged that many people now mistakenly expect it to be.

Its aim was to ease old age for those on the lowest rungs of poverty, so it was non-contributory and means-tested.

To qualify, candidates had to be 70-plus, with an annual income of no more than £31.10s. They also had to have been British subjects for at least 20 years.

Disqualifications included being in receipt of Poor Relief and "habitual failure to work according to ability, opportunity and need; detention in a lunatic asylum; and conviction of a criminal offence without the option of a fine."

The national estimate was that 15 per 1,000 of the population would qualify (1.5 per cent).

But in Kingston, where there were 397 applicants, only 309 pensions were granted - less than one per cent of the 34,375 inhabitants.

The lucky few were granted weekly sums.

These ranged from 1s (5p) to 5s (25p), according to means, and were paid out from post offices.

But there was no great rush for the new largesse. At Kingston's main post office in Eden Street, 80 people collected pensions on the first day.

In Surbiton, where 189 out of 229 applicants were granted pensions, more than 30 collected on the first day from the main post office in Victoria Road.

The Comet noted how "the smiling lady clerks behind the counters had no little trouble in dealing with the aged folk, as by far the greater number were deaf, and many could not pen their signature.

The latter difficulty was, however, got over by these pensioners affixing their cross to the sheet, with the obliging clerk acting as witness."

But it was all very low key.

"There were no outward demonstrations of jubilance on the part of the old people", said the Comet.

"They produced their vouchers, did what was required of them, pocketed their money, and walked away quite as a matter of course, as if they had been used to drawing pensions for half their lives."

There was more of a gala atmosphere in Richmond, where the Mayor, Alderman Thompson, celebrated the first day of pensions by inviting 150 new pensioners to a party.

Many arrived in carriages lent by wealthier residents to enjoy a lavish tea and music by Mr Fisher's Imperial Band.

The 60 new pensioners in the borough of Malden and Coombe "manifested great delight" when collecting their cash. But Esher remained unruffled.

"Esher may be considered more or less a wealthy district, and it is not surprising therefore that only three applicants have as yet claimed their crown," remarked the Comet.

Pensions were not the only talking point in 1909. Another was an addition to the Married Women's Property Act which, for the first time, made a married woman legally bound to contribute towards the support of her parents if necessary.

(Previously only men and unmarried women had this obligation.)

Can you imagine the outcry if this law was re-applied today?

The arduous job of assessing and administering the new pensions was given to the local Excise Officers.

One of the trickiest aspects of their new duties was to gauge the age of claimants when there was no documentary proof.

So they were issued with advice sheets on How to Verify that a Pension Claimant is over 70 years old. An extract from this advice is shown on the right.

By 1913, Kingston's pensioners had risen from 309 to 1,134.

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