Why so you think there have been some changes in government

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Why so you think there have been some changes in
governments attitudes towards the traditional
Universal Welfare Provision?

• By 0318??

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the welfare situation in UK since WW II.

• Key words
• Beveridge report
• Keynesian economics

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the welfare situation in UK since WW II.

• Beveridge report
• the National Health Service in 1946, with free
  medical treatment for all
• the National Assistance Act 1948
• A national system of benefits
• 'from the cradle to the grave'.

William Beveridge
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two dominant political perspectives of the time
reluctant collectivist and social democratic--
both accepted that the state needed to
intervene, to a degree, in the market economy and
to provide at least a basic level of social
protection for its population

• Keynesian economics predominant influence theory

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challenges of the 1970's

• mass unemployment
• the oil crisis
• an international recession
• the emergence of radical perspectives
• rising expectations of the public of welfare
  services

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Key wordat this time

• a third political approach
• the New Right ideology
• the free market and that public welfare
  benefits undermined the incentive to work and the
  flexibility of the labour market

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how the Beveridge Report is insufficient.

• could no longer afford to sustain the welfare
  system in its then current form. Beveridge's plan
  had been based on an assumption that full
  employment was a sustainable feature of modern
  industrial society
• the cost of running the services had
  consistently grown beyond expectation, without
  full employment there were less contributions and
  yet more money had to be paid out. Economic
  growth had stumbled and the oil crisis plunged
  the international economy into recession.

the cost of running the services had
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• created a dependency on the state, considered a
  highly undesirable consequence
• Radical perspectives and approaches also
  developed that highlighted more inequalities
• Demographic changes and predictions also raised
  problems , particularly the aging population
• the expectations of the growing middle class were
  increasing, they expected more and more from the
  services that they paid for and used

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• with these developing pressures that the
  Conservative party under Thatcher won the
  election in 1979, they vigorously espoused New
  Right values and set upon a programme of
  redefining the states relationship to its
  citizens, promising to free the market and reduce
  dependency on welfare

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• The future of a Universal Welfare system looks
  like being in the balance, and a move towards a
  Selectivity system seems on the way, but
  whichever way it goes the government need to
  ensure that the vulnerable do not suffer -
  Children, elderly and the disabled.

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Thank you for your attention.