Creating a Welfare State: Provisions of Social Welfare

Welfare provision in 1918
1. Victorian Poor Law
2. Liberal welfare reforms early 20th c.
  1. Unemployment Insurance 1911
    1. 7 shillings a week unemployment benefit up to 15 weeks - low payment, average wage = twenty shillings/week
    2. Female workers & wives of working men, maternity allowance
    3. 10% total working male population
    4. self financing
3. pre 1914 = patchwork, victorian view private charity best way of dealing with poor
Growth of welfare provision 1918-39
1. Unemployment Insurance Act 1920
  1. NI: 4m workers 1919 → 11.4m 1921
  2. benefits increased: 75 unemployed men, 60p women (avg. low paid job = £3)
  3. covered non-contributors = state funded 'dole' & no means test
    1. Why?
      1. massive unemployment
      2. fears poverty = revolution
      3. support soldiers
2. Welfare in the 1930s
  1. National Economy Act 1931
    1. means test - limit welfare bill
      1. exacerbated hardship
        Hunger Marches e.g. Jarrow 1936
      2. disqualified short term workers
        affected men who worked odd days in collieries/ship yards & welfare rest of time
        unemployment more economic sense than work = poverty trap
    2. claim 6 months & reapply
    3. Public Assistance Committees investigate circumstances
      1. ALL household income - children move out
    4. MOST UNPOPULAR PIECE OF LEGISLATION!
  2. Unemployment Act 1934
    1. built on 1931
      1. long & short term unemployed distinction
    2. reversed 10% cut to short term unemployed
    3. means testing for long term unemployed stayed & payments lower rate than those 1931-34
      1. PROTEST: 300,000 in South Wales
        1935 gov. standstill legislation - popular pressure protecting welfare
  3. unemployment 3m 1933 → 1.4m 1939
    1. 1930s = consensus that state had significant role in providing unemployment benefit
Impact of WW2
1. Evacuation
  1. 1939 - 1.5m children relocated
  2. Evacuation authorities didn't cater for needs
    1. assumed private charity & families would provide
    2. poor children often transported without spare clothes, bedding, food etc
    3. improved after - gov. provided with essentials & social workers etc
2. Rationing
  1. Began January 1940
    1. Bacon, butter, sugar
    2. 1942 - eggs, jam, tea, meat
  2. Clothes - June 1941
    1. 66 coupons a year
      1. dress = 11
    2. pre-war clothing such good quality, people continued wearing it
    3. soap rations = smelly clothes!
  3. Effect
    1. Black market
      1. price only rich could afford
      2. not big problem - rationing welcomed during war
    2. Improved diet!
      1. unhealthy foods less available
      2. pint of beer 1939 = 3p, 1942 = 7p
      3. Food Policy Committee authorised subsidies milk & fuel for mothers with small children
3. Beveridge Report 1942
  1. Post-war Britain, conquer 5 evils
    1. Squalor
    2. Ignorance
    3. Want
    4. Idleness
    5. Disease
  2. William Beveridge
  3. universal benefits - flat rate contributions & benefit
  4. REACTIONS
    1. VERY popular! sold sever hundred thousand copies
    2. Propaganda to British troops
    3. Ministry of Information found it had universal support
    4. Supported by The Times & Telegraph
    5. adopted by all parties to varying degrees
Labour Gov. & Consensus 1939-64
1. Work of Labour 1945-51 - CREATING MODERN WELFARE STATE
  1. Family Allowances Act 1945
    1. child benefits for 1st time
      1. 25p/week for each child
    2. paid to mother rather than father- economic independence
  2. National Insurance Act 1946
    1. Unemployment & sickness benefit for all workers
      1. Creator James Griffiths: "from barrow boy to field marshal"
      2. Same contribution = higher proportion of poor peoples wages
    2. State pension men over 65 & women 60
    3. £1 single people, £1.75 married couples
  3. Industrial Injuries Act 1946
    1. Right to compensation paid by Ministry of National Insurance
    2. 2,,425 people killed per year in 40s
  4. National Assistance Act 1948
    1. Welfare to those not covered by National Insurance
      1. homeless, disabled, unmarried mums, pensioners in poverty
2. Consensus 1939-64
  1. Centre & left of Conservatives saw it as vital part of modern Britain
    1. Harold Macmillan early advocate cons. welfarism
      1. The Middle Way 1938
      2. agreed there should be no return to pre-war poverty
      3. upper & middle classes moral responsibility to help poor
      4. Realised welfare cuts would make conservatives unpopular & unelectable
    2. some members e.g. Enoch Powell advocated cuts - though they were in minority
  2. HOWEVER, spent less on welfare in 50s & 60s than West Germany & France
    1. But welfare as % of GDP 3% → 4% (& further 3% on pensions)
  3. Didn;t end poverty
    1. 1965 Child Poverty Action Group → 720,000 children lived in poverty
Challenges to State Welfare Provision 1964-79
1. Wilson gov. 1964 promised increased welfare spending. Chancellor James Callaghan discovered £800m debt → continued with welfare → increase in taxation → resentment towards welfare cost
2. 1970 National Insurance Act - Heath (torie) seemed comitted to welfare
  1. generous welfare package
    1. pension rights to 100,000 not covered by 1948 act
    2. Attendance allowance for those needed long term care at home
    3. invalidity benefit for disabled
    4. increase child benefit
    5. rent subsidies for low income families in private accomodation
3. Right Wing Challenege
  1. Sir Kieth Joseph
    1. welfare limits individual freedom
    2. advocates assumed they had right to take money from citizens to improve others lives
    3. Inspired by Austrian economist, Friedrich Hayek
  2. Welfare & Efficiency
    1. gov. would always spend less efficiently than private business
    2. private business run for profit, gov not → no need for efficiency
    3. Blamed post 1945 economic problems partly on welfare
  3. Welfare & Inflation
    1. Welfare = gov. borrowing → increased money in economy without increasing goods
    2. Tackle inflation with welfare spending = more inflation!
  4. Welfare & Dependency
    1. welfare = dependency culture
      1. economic delcine
      2. perpetuated relative poverty - people living on smaller amounts
      3. moral problems e.g. loss of self respect gained from hard work
        no aspirations, goals, self-respect, no contribution
    2. welfare payments encouraged living off benefits rather than jobs
4. Heath lost 1974 election → Thatcher is leader → anti-welfare
  1. Criticised Wilson's welfare policies e.g. 1975 universal child benefit & 25% rise in pension rates and freezing council house rents in 1974 budget
5. IMF Cuts
  1. 1976 - gov. cut spending in return for $4bn loan
  2. £2.5bn cuts → housing & education cut
6. Opponents of Welfare
  1. Telegraph, Times, FT
    1. critical of excessive spending
  2. younger people less inclined to embrace collectivist thinking that emerged from Depression & WW2
  3. Tories 1979 election → welfare bad for economy, society & burden on tax payer
  4. Aspirational working & middle classes → less sympathy for policies that meant higher taxes

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Creating a Welfare State: Provisions of Social Welfare

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	Created by Jamima Westermann almost 8 years ago