From the Cradle to the Grave

1
From the Cradle to the Grave

• The Arrival of the Welfare State, 1945 -51

2
Definition

• The Welfare state is a system of state help and
  benefits. It was started in 1945 by the Labour
  government and aimed to do away with the causes
  of poverty.
• It was a universal scheme that applied to
  everyone.
• Benefits were centrally organised and given out
  by the Government
• People were now entitled to benefits having paid
  National Insurance.

3
Defeat Hitler, build a better Britain

• During the war, the number one topic of
  conversation was usually the state of the war at
  that particular time. The next big topic was
  always the new world after the war.

4
Total War

• Total war involved sacrifices and contributions
  by everyone.
• The government took control over the economy and
  peoples lives in a way never thought possible
  before.
• War created a powerful unity of purpose and the
  question arose if it was possible to distribute
  resources equally in war time why not in peace
  time?

5
Shared Experiences

• Evacuation showed the well off classes the social
  deprivation of the inner cities.
• Bombing affected everyone, rich or poor and
  both depended on state help when bombed out of
  their homes.

6

• All war injured, soldiers or victims of bombing
  got free medical treatment.
• Rationing meant that scarce resources were shared
  out fairly.
• A Londoner observed People were much more
  together

7
Churchills coalition government

• Churchill formed a coalition government in 1940
  during Britains darkest hour.
• Atlee as deputy prime minister, Bevin, Cripps,
  Morrison, Greenwood and Dalton were all Labour
  ministers in the government.

8
Government Action 1940 - 42

• The Government began to introduce a number of
  reforms during the war
• National Milk scheme
• Provision of school meals and milk
• Immunisation
• State nurseries
• Old age and widows pension Act
• Determination of needs act

9

• These measures were moving the social security
  system from selective to universal benefits. It
  could be argued that the war was laying the
  foundations of the modern welfare state and that
  the Labour government completed it.

10
William Beveridge

• A civil servant, he helped to introduce National
  Insurance and Labour Exchanges under the Liberal
  Government.
• 1919 - Director of the London School of
  Economics and held positions in London and Oxford
  Universities.

11
William Beveridge

• Involved in the planning of rationing which was
  introduced in 1940.
• In 1941 he was asked by the coalition government
  to investigate how improvements could be made to
  the system of providing sickness and unemployment
  insurance.

12
The Beveridge Report

• Beveridge identified 5 Giants in Society that had
  to be tackled.
• Want
• Disease
• Idleness
• Ignorance
• Squalor

13
How to tackle the 5 Giants?

• Want - establish a comprehensive social security
  system
• Disease - establish a new health service
• Idleness - the state should aim to provide full
  employment
• Ignorance - reform the education system
• Squalor - clear slums and build new houses.

14
Principles behind the Proposals

• The System was to be
• Comprehensive
• Universal
• Insurance Based
• Compulsory
• Flat rate
• Provide subsistence
• Non-means tested

15
The Beveridge Report

• Beveridge proposed a new social security system
  funded from national insurance that would meet
  peoples needs from the cradle to the grave.
• The Beveridge Report became a bestseller ,635,000
  copies were sold.
• Not everyone was enthusiastic about the
  proposals, how could Britain afford it?

16
The Beveridge Report

• The purpose of victory is to live in a better
  world than the old world each individual citizen
  is more likely to concentrate upon his war effort
  if he feels his government will be ready in time
  with plans for that better world
• Extract from the Beveridge Report

17
Education Act 1944

• A comprehensive system set up
• Primary, secondary and further education
• There was to be free education for all up to the
  age of 15.
• Recommended dividing secondary schools into
  grammar and secondary modern based on pupil
  ability at 11 exam
• This created a two tier system, pupils were
  either given an academic or vocational education.

18
Family Allowances

• Family allowances were paid for each second and
  subsequent child in a family.
• 5 shillings a week per child
• Paid to the mother
• Criticised because would only buy 1lb of tea, a
  tube of tooth paste and a mars bar.

19
Germany surrendered on the 8th May 1945.
20
The Labour Government 1945-1951

• Labour led by Clement Atlee won a landslide
  victory in the 1945 elections.

21

• Churchill was defeated because people believed
  Labour not Conservatives would implement the
  Beveridge report.

22
Labour takes on the Five Giants
23
Want

• Social security became universal and compulsory
• Insured population would be entitled to
  unemployment, sickness, maternity and widows
  benefits, pensions and death grant to cover
  funeral costs.

24
National insurance Act 1946

• Man paid 4s 11d per week in contributions
• Women and under 18s paid less
• Weekly stamps stuck on card
• Single man received 26s
• Married man 42 s
• 16s for wife
• 7s 6d for first child

25
National insurance ( industrial injury) 1946

• Injured worker entitled to same benefits for six
  months
• If injury lasted beyond this entitled to a
  pension.

26
National Assistance Act 1948

• National Assistance Act 1948 was the safety net
  to meet the needs of those not covered by the
  insurance schemes because not working, on low
  wages or handicapped.
• Needs test required
• Payments low either weekly or one off grants.
• Did away with the workhouse but old people often
  needed help because pension was low.

27
5th July 1948

• Ministry of National Insurance set up in
  Newcastle
• 40,000 civil servants needed to administer the
  scheme to keep records of 25 million workers.
• Scheme made a surplus in the first few years
  because unemployment was so low.

28
Analysis

• Compared to the past this was a marked
  improvement. However benefits were paid only
  after contributions had been received.
• The levels of benefit were fixed for five years
  and by the time of implementation they were well
  below subsistence levels so people still had to
  apply for national assistance. Still a long way
  to go to address poverty.

29
Ignorance

• In education, the biggest problem was shortage of
  schools, partly because of the bombing.
• By 1950 1,176 schools, mostly primaries, were
  built.
• Few technical schools built
• Two tier system divisive
• Only 20 of places were available at grammar
  schools so most children were classed as non
  academic and had no access to university or the
  professions.
• Labour have been criticised for doing little to
  offer greater access to education for the working
  class.
• It was 1964 before the idea of comprehensive
  education became party policy.

30
Squalor

• It was estimated that 469,000 new homes were
  needed in Scotland.
• Responsibility for housing was given to the
  Ministry of Health.
• Prefabs or factory built houses were a temporary
  solution to housing shortages.
• 157,000 prefabs were built.
• Bevan gave priority to council housing

31
The Town and country planning act 1947

• The Town and country planning act 1947 gave
  councils more power to buy land and redevelop
  areas.
• 12 new towns were planned.
• Good quality housing and a good environment with
  shops and leisure facilities.
• Glenrothes and East Kilbride were the first two
  built in Scotland.

32
1949 Housing Act

• 1949 Housing act local authorities were allowed
  to buy up homes for improvement or conversion .
  They got grants of 75 from the government and
  50 for private homes.
• 700,000 homes were built but 750,000 homes still
  needed.

33
Analysis

• New house building was limited because of lack of
  skilled workers and materials.
• 4 council houses were built for every private
  home.
• Some families had to squat on disused army camps
• Prefabs were supposed to be a temporary measure
  but were still being used 50 years later.
• 750,000 homes were still needed.
• Labour failed to solve the housing problem but
  this was due more to the scale of the problems
  facing the country after the war.

34
Idleness

• Dalton the chancellor of the exchequer claimed
  that full employment was the greatest
  revolution brought about by the Labour
  government
• By 1946 unemployment was only 2.5 but this could
  be due to the post war boom not labour policies.

35
Nationalisation

• Labour believed the state should take over
  industry and run them for the benefit of the
  people.
• Bank of England, civil aviation, coal,
  communications, transport, elecricity, gas, iron
  and steel were all nationalised.
• The government owned 20 of Britains industries.
• Unfortunately many were inefficient and out of
  date and cost taxpayers money rather than make
  profits.

36
Disease

• The National Health Service bill was piloted
  through parliament by Aneurin Bevin.
• Under the previous system only 21 million workers
  were covered.
• Not covered were
• Dependents
• Self employed
• Uninsured
• They had the additional anxiety of postponing
  treatment or facing bills

37
5th July 1948

• The service proposed was universal
• No limitation on the type of assistance and free
• The NHS came into being on the appointed day
• July 5th 1948

38
Doctors

• Doctors were initially against the NHS
• 40,814 voted against it and only 4,734 for it.
• In the end doctors were bought off they would get
  15s per NHS patient , money for prescription
  drugs and could keep their private patients.
• 90 of doctors agreed to join.

39
Analysis

• Demand for the health service was huge.
• Prescriptions rose from 7 million to 14 million
  per month
• In the first year 5 million spectacles were
  dispensed and 8million dental patients treated.
• The expense was enormous and was supposed to be
  met by general taxation.
• By 1950 it cost 358 million.
• Labour had to introduce prescription charges
• Bevan resigned.
• Despite the criticism the NHS was arguably the
  greatest single achievement in the story of the
  welfare state.

40
Assessment of the Labour reforms

• In a sense Labour were completing the reforms
  begun a long time before.
• The welfare state had evolved from the time of
  the surveys of Booth and Rowntree and the liberal
  reforms of David Lloyd George( some times called
  the father of the welfare state)
• Attitudes had changed
• Welfare support was believed to be a right, free
  of the shame of the poor law.

41

• Labours achievement was more of modernising,
  improving and greatly extending an existing
  structure than building a completely new one.
• Poverty had been reduced not eliminated
• Rowntree completed another survey, now only 2.7
  of the population were poverty stricken

42
Benefits

• The reforms involved large sums of money but a
  fit and healthy workforce would benefit the
  country
• Family allowances were a cost effective way of
  relieving hardship
• many millions were benefiting

43
Criticisms

• The cost of welfare was so great that other
  priorities like industry were ignored.
• Health and education reforms benefited the middle
  classes more than the working class
• The reforms were not radical enough but Atlee did
  not want the reforms to be reversed by the next
  conservative government.

44
Success?

• Atlee was successful, the conservatives largely
  accepted the welfare state
• The attack on the five giants were underway
• The state was now providing a safety net which
  protected all people from the cradle to the grave

45
Historians views

• Debate - whether the reforms had a beneficial or
  damaging effect.
• Saville - reforms promised much but delivered
  little damp squib
• Barnet - country decisively changed by 1957 but
  disastrous because prioritised social
  improvements at the expense of long term economic
  health.
• Addison - the overall effect is more important
  than individual measures.