The Welfare State: Britains Rise to Social Freedom - Essay Example

The Welfare Britain’s rise to social freedom Britain during the early years of 1940’s was faced with many social issues that have plagued many countries during the World War II. The most common social issues that arise and are prevalent are poverty, unemployment, sickness, lack of education and homelessness. Of all these social deficits, people and the government took the initiative of taking actions and assuming full responsibility together with the help of the public to end such social nightmares. Thus the will of man to end social suffering brought the eventual development of social welfare over the years that are aimed to promote, establish and maintain social equality and freedom. What happened to the social welfare over the years is remarkable but was it successful in its combat against the goal it was aimed for? Through this essay history of British welfare state is reviewed and analyzed if whether the purpose of its origin is met. This essay is aimed to bring forth better understanding of the development of the social welfare and the path that it took before its realization and the obstacles it was faced during the coming of years. And with the contemplation of these events and ideas is the hope to learn from the failures of history to become guidelines in providing innovations to welfare and come up with better solution regarding social problems the world is currently faced today. Background and history To better understand the context of welfare state it is better to go over the progression of the social policy development embedded within the history. Social policy is defined as actions aimed at promoting social well being and is used to define the role of the state in relation to the welfare of the people (Hill, 2003, p.1) though other definitions use welfare as synonymous to well-being hence social policy and social welfare connotes the same idea. The study of social policy in UK has been concerned to examine the extent to which the welfare of the state meets the people’s need. It has been viewed as concerned with the alleviation of social ills. Furthermore, social policy is defined by many authors from the standpoint of Fabian socialism which is concerned with incremental social change to create a more equal society. Hill (2003) cited the development of early social policy dated back from the twentieth century during the reign of Elizabethan’s poor law that places social responsibility to corresponding parishes to provide relief for the poor. But the task of the poor law became more costly and more complex that paved way for the development of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 setting up for a national Poor law Commission to facilitate the new system. This time around the system ensures that the benefits are given to the worst off than the poorest people (Hill, 2003). Over time the consequences of modernization posed problems that entirely new responses were necessary to address the increasing problems in health, education, poverty, employment and shelter. During the event of the world wars, the war economy produced many shortages that needed government intervention to help support the wounded economy. During those times the government made may promises and pursued many reforms for a better future. Such reforms include Education Act for free education up to the age of fourteen and the housing act, known as the Addison act that gives the provision of houses for the working class (Hill, 2003, p. 21). In a simpler sense, the progression of social policy was an evolving process based on the needs and situations the society is faced. The war for example has brought many damages to different areas of living and left governments to cope up with multiple wreckages on livelihood, education, infrastructure, trade and healthcare. Britain’s welfare history: the development of welfare state The welfare state is a state that is partly dedicated to providing for the security and well-being of its citizens (Fergusson & Hughes, 2000). The development of the welfare state aimed at ending social problems that are prevalent and seen by the government that needs to be addressed to prevent further damages to the nation’s stability. Blakemore & Griggs (2000) summarizes the years 1941-51 to be the period in which the main structure of the welfare system was built. On December 1 of 1942 the wartime coalition government published a report entitled Social Insurance and Allied Services written by William Beveridge, a highly regarded economist and expert on unemployment problems. This report that came to be known as the Beveridge Report quickly became the blueprint for the modern British welfare state. The report aimed to provide a comprehensive system of social insurance that proposes that all working people should pay a weekly contribution to the state to fund benefits to the unemployed, the sick, the retired and the widowed (The National Archives). The Beveridge report aims for an acceptable standard of living available for every British national in which a system based on the Beveridge report was later introduced by the Labour party Government in 1945 by Prime Minister elect Clement Attlee. Labour had promised full welfare through employment, secure jobs with fair wages, an end to wartime rationing and decent homes for all (Brown, 2001). The five giants The report indicates provision to fight five sources of social problems termed as the five giants. Beveridge emphasised the need to eradicate from life five major evils – want, squalor, ignorance, disease and idleness, suggesting the ways that this might be achieved by the government. As cited by Pleuger (2002), the report says: The aim of the Plan for Social Security is to abolish want by ensuring that every citizen willing to serve according to his powers has at all times an income sufficient to meet his responsibilities … want is a needless scandal due to not taking the trouble to prevent it …Want is only one of the five giants on the road to reconstruction and in some ways the easiest to attack. The others are Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness … Social security must be achieved by co-operation between the State and the individual … (Beveridge, 1942) The five giants as noted by Beveridge accounts to lack of basics in life-want, avoidable diseases-disease, unemployment-idleness, lack of education for all-ignorance and poverty-squalor were addressed promptly by the provision of laws aided for the welfare of the society. Though the report only dealt with the ‘want’ problem, other problems were suggested to be conquered too. The Welfare State therefore envisaged the provision of comprehensive social services guided by the report and so realization was made for the establishment of a compulsory and comprehensive insurance law implemented by the National Insurance Act of 1946. Payments for this insurance which are paid by the State, the employers and the employed were made for unemployment, sickness, maternity and funerals and for pensions for people who can no longer work or has come to retire. Other laws implemented by the Labour government to combat against other giants were the distribution of family allowance provided by the Family Allowance Act of 1945, free health service with free medical, dental and optical care for all established by the National Health Act, financial assistance given to those who fell below the poverty line those with deep-seated financial need through the National Assistance Act of 1946, the provision of education available to all under the Education act of 1944 and more houses were built in Britain in the five years after 1945 than any European country and by 1956 over 25 percent lived in publicly-owned houses. It was termed the most reforming government of the century (Pleuger, 2002). Over the years the combat against the social reform over Britain has been of controversy but the idea of the welfare state was well embraced by the most of the society. It can be viewed through the findings of the study that the welfare state was successful in battling against the perceived threats to society. Not only did the welfare state provided solutions for the societal problems but it also maximized the national fund that could have been wasted upon providing for the solutions shouldered by the state alone. But through the national funding provision, the state was able to provide the funds for social development with the help of the working populace while benefiting both sectors. Furthermore benefits in the form of housing and health services such as free medical consult were also made available for the prompt tax payment from the working sector. Through national funding everyone in the state is given the chance of equal chance of living at the same time taking social responsibility to help combat national problems that affects national stability. To sum up the goodness the welfare state has done is closing this essay statement by Harris (1992, p. 126, as cited by Offer, p. 124), “the analysis of specific social problems to a vision of reconstructing the whole British society, together with the reform of the rational understanding and moral character of individual British citizens. Social policy was not viewed as an end in itself, nor was the recipients of welfare ends in themselves; on the contrary, both policies and people were means to the end of attaining perfect justice and creating the ideal state.” Bibliography Blakemore K. & Griggs E. (2000) Social Policy an Introduction. O.U. Press. Buckingham. p. 50-59. Brown D. (2001) 1945-51: Labour and the creation of the welfare state [internet]. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2001/mar/14/past.education [Accessed 25 February 2012] Ferguson R. & Hughes G. (2000). Ordering Lives, Family, Work and Welfare. Routledge. London. p. 116-128 Hill M. (2003) Understanding Social Policy, London, Blackwell, p. 1-24 Offer J. (2006) An intellectual history of British social policy: idealism versus non-idealism. The Policy Press. p. 124 Pleuger G. (2002) Welfare State [internet]. Available from [Accessed 25 February 2012] The National Archives [n.d]. The welfare state [internet] available from [Accessed 25 February 2012] Read More