The friendly societies and trade unions had been reconciled to the insurance legislation of 1911, which provided protection against unemployment and sickness, by being designated ‘approved societies’, authorized to receive and channel contributions from members to achieve the protection designated by the Act. They had generally welcomed the earlier non-contributory pensions as lightening the burden of old age sickness and unemployment payments they had to make. However, in 1925, when contributory national insurance was extended to cover old age, the trade unions and friendly societies did not actively seek a role as a channel, and it was not offered to them. They had effectively accepted that the provision of a minimum income in old age was the business of the state. Their members now readily acquiesced in this, looking to these traditional working-class savings institutions less and less for basic protection in old age. For many decades, small numbers of the old continued to retire with benefits from trade unions and friendly societies, but it was more and more difficult for these institutions to persuade their members to subscribe for these purposes.