The Development of the British Welfare State

Families had to be very desperate to accept the harsh conditions linked with the workhouses, and their draconian regimes that made people work hard and split up whole families as a matter of cause. The Poor Laws were a system that was paid for and administered at a local level, often with local ratepayers unwilling to pay too much to look after the lazy or the work shy. These early forms of social security proved wholly inadequate for relieving let alone reversing poverty. In such circumstances, unemployment, underemployment, physical inability, or simply old age made all the difference between living meaningful lives or being barely able to survive. Such conditions forced people to seek the limited poor relief available, or face destitution. Some people tried to make allowance for no longer being able to work by having savings, or by paying into insurance and pension schemes.

In Britain the welfare state began to emerge as the eventual replacement of the Poor Law system during the period immediately before the First World War. The Liberal government introduced limited unemployment benefits, with old age pensions, and job centers to help people find jobs, paid for by national insurance contributions and income taxes. Even this limited scheme offered greater social security provision than the Poor Laws had ever done. All benefits were administered on a contribution basis, and those benefits would run out once the contributions had been exhausted. There was no formal retirement age, and the majority of people could not cope financially without being able to work, and perhaps history is now turning full circle as people are having to work longer due to the declining value of retirement pensions. The availability of free healthcare in Britain before 1945 was sparse, which meant that many people went without medical treatment.

The situation in Britain did not alter until the Atlee governments of 1945 to 1951. Atlee and the Labour party were determined to eliminate poverty, ill health, and social deprivation as much as they could. Social and economic policies were driven by the Labour party’s own constitution, its long-term objectives, and acting upon the recommendations of the Beveridge Report.

Universal benefits were available to more people for longer periods (in theory for as long as those benefits were needed), whilst those on low incomes or incapable of work were able to claim supplementary benefits. Family Allowance was introduced, which was available for everybody hat had children at the same rate of benefit for every individual child, irrespective of family income. However the crowning achievement of the Atlee governments was undoubtedly the establishing of the National Health Service (NHS). The founding principle of the NHS was that healthcare provision was free to all at the point of delivery to everybody that needed medical treatment. The NHS remains very popular with the British public yet its adequate funding has always been an area of contention for its management and successive British governments. Over the years the NHS has succeeded in raising life expectancy levels, as well as reducing the death and birth rates. The combination of these factors has had social and economic implications that were not anticipated in the immediate post-war period.