Procedure on Hardship

CIRCULAR TO ALL HOUSES PRO/2004/07

PROCEDURE ON HARDSHIP

1. Any person who attends may ask the treasurer of any house for money. There is no form. There is no committee.

2. The treasurer does not ask what it is for and does not record what it is for. Where a person volunteers the reason, it is not written down.

3. Sums up to 500 are given by the treasurer alone and on the day where possible. Sums above 500 require a second signature, which is the steward's, and the steward is told the amount and not the recipient.

4. No repayment is asked for and none is recorded as owing. A person who repays is thanked and the repayment is entered as an ordinary contribution.

5. The fund's total disbursement is published annually. The number of persons is not published, because in a house of nineteen that number identifies people.

6. A refusal must be given in writing with the reason. The only permissible reasons are that the fund is exhausted for the quarter or that the request would breach clause 7.

7. The fund is not to be used to pay a person's room and board back to the Institute, which would be the Institute paying itself and calling it help. Where a resident cannot pay, the sum is reduced under PRO/1980/04 clause 4 and the reduction is not a hardship payment.

8. Nothing given under this procedure creates any obligation whatever, and no person who has received money is to be asked to take an office, a rota turn, or a duty within the following year unless they ask for it.