Workfare

A measure of affording relief in connection with work was that each able-bodied man received rations in proportion to the number dependent on him for sustenance; and that each, however small the allowance of rations was required to give eight hours (subsequently increased to ten) at least of his time in labour at the stone depot for every day for which he received such relief.

Accordingly

"the Commissioners recommend the Guardians to establish a system of breaking stones by Measure, as the most suitable employment for able-bodied males requiring relief. The advantages of stone breaking are, that it is easy to superintend and regulate as task-work-that the materials are generally available, the implements of labour few and simple and above all, that it is less eligible to the labourer than most other employments, provided that it be vigilantly superintended and that a full day's labour be rigorously exacted from each recipient of relief".

The justice of this arrangement, according to the Commissioners, was based on the fact that the food was given not as the price of labour, but as the relief of destitution. The labour given in return was the condition of receiving that relief; and if the necessities of the recipient and his family were wholly relieved, it was just that he should give in return the full value of his labour, whatever that was.