First Published in 1998. This is Volume X of eighteen of a series on the Sociology of Public Policy, Welfare and Social Work. Written in 1957 this text provides a review of social provision for old age in Great Britain. This book is intended to make a general review, in the light of the considerable literature of research and discussion now available, of the foundations of present-day social policies for old age; and to examine some of the perplexing open questions which those policies expose.