Catalogue description Unemployment Assistance Board and Assistance Board: Local Advisory Committees: Representative Minutes

The Unemployment Act 1934 placed upon the Unemployment Assistance Board the duty to appoint local advisory committees, with members drawn from local authorities and voluntary organisations, employers and employed persons, and the professions. Committees were able to advise area and district officers on specific and general problems.

The Old Age and Widows Pension Act 1940 enabled these committees to continue under the Assistance Board with wider interests in the field of assistance and supplementary pensions.

After 1948 the membership of the committees reflected the wider responsibilities of the National Assistance Board, including persons experienced in the work of local pension committees and in assistance to blind and tubercular persons. Where possible the advisory committees shared a common membership with the advisory committees of the Ministry of National Insurance.