Essay about Elimination of Poverty in the Welfare State

The idea of the welfare state can mean something different in each and every country. There is an ideal model of the welfare state which is where society accepts the responsibility for things such as the ground work and the provision of wide ranging and

The report lead to the creation of the Welfare State that includes the National Health Services (NHS). The Beveridge report was not fully implemented by the coalition government until after the general election of 1945 that gave victory to the Labour party. The new prime minister, Clement Attlee, announced he would introduce the welfare state outlined in the 1942 Beveridge Report. The report include the establishment of a National Health Service in 1948 with free medical treatment for all. A national system of benefits was also introduced to provide 'social security' so that the population would be protected from the 'cradle to the grave'. The new system was partly built on the national insurance scheme set up by Lloyd George in 1911. People in work still had to make contributions each week, as did employers, but the benefits provided were now much greater (Bbc.co.uk, 2016).

Poverty affects over 767 million people in the entire world. In the United States alone, poverty affects more than 42 million people. According to feedingamerica.org, of that 42 million affected, 13 million children and over 5 million seniors live in poverty. Poverty is grouped into two different categories; absolute and relative. Wikipedia.org defines absolute poverty as the absence of enough resources to secure basic life necessities. This includes not having safe drinking water, not having clean bathroom facilities, not being able to get proper healthcare, not having access to education and not having proper shelter. Absolute poverty is also referred to as living in extreme poverty. Relative poverty, according to wikipedia.org, is the condition in which people lack the minimum amount of income needed in order to maintain the average standard of living in the society in which they live. The meaning of poverty varies from country to country and person to person. For example, while some people in the United States would be considered as living below the poverty line, a person from another country may consider that person rich. However, poverty is simply when an individual is unable to meet their basic needs. This includes not being able to clothed, house or feed oneself or one’s family. Poverty is a problem that will not be easily solved. There have been many attempts to try and end poverty, but yet it continues to grow. In a country such as the United States that’s

This essay will examine how the development of the Welfare State and the NHS changed the lives of the people of Britain since its introduction in 1948. To enable me to do so, I will analyse and evaluate the key relevant aspects that happened during that period.

Poverty effected many individual families around the world for many years, and it wasn’t until 1935, The Social Security Act was passed, therefore assisting many families in need. The effects of poverty is an extraordinarily obscure social experience, and the finding those causes is very similar. As a result, sociologists considered other theories of poverty, such as the journey of the middle class, employers, from the cities into the suburbs. The government has taken many steps over the years to put an end to or decrease welfare assistance. Although, the welfare system is extremely important to millions of people, it has been an underlying problem for many others causing idleness and laziness. There are many pros and cons to

"The U.S. Congress kicked off welfare reform nationwide last October with the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, heralding a new era in which welfare recipients are required to look for work as a condition of benefits." http://www.detnews.com/1997/newsx/welfare/rules/rules.htm. Originally, the welfare system was created to help poor men, women, and children who are in need of financial and medical assistance. Over the years, welfare has become a way of life for its recipients and has created a culture of dependency. Currently, the government is in the process of reforming the welfare system. The welfare reform system’s objective was to get people off the welfare system and onto the

It is important to discuss the history of the emergence of this social problem. I will discuss the essence of poverty as a social problem and how that has affected how welfare is distributed among single mothers. Some factors that contributed to this social problem are the economy and he increasing amount of people who lived in poverty. The government felt that it was necessary to be proactive about the growing issue of poverty. The government was also taking a look at how money was being spent and how that contributed to the nation’s debt. As a result some policies were put into place to address those issues. Many programs were on a trial and error period to determine the success rate of that program. If the social program had expenses that seemed to add to the deficit then those programs were either revamped or eliminated. It is important to examine how Welfare has changed from the Colonial period to present.

In conclusion the Welfare State was created on the principle that the state accepted a responsibility to protect and promote the welfare of all citizens. It must be noted that the system was designed to provide a national minimum, not reduce inequalities. I have looked in detail at all aspects to combat the “five giants “and the popular support when the Beveridge report was introduced. I have also looked at flaws in the system, however the cornerstone of the Beveridgian welfare system, was left almost untouched until the 1980’s.

It saw high wages fought for by unions as being a factor in unemployment. They replaced grants with loans from the social fund, benefit eligibility was reduced and payments cut.Pensions decreased, council houses were sold and companies were privatised. Care in the community was introduced encouraging more care by family members (free). They pushed for the nuclear family, outcasting women and ostrecising single mothers.

And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then to look after our neighbour'. (http://www.skyminds.net/politics/inequalities-in-great-britain-in-the-19th-and-20th-centuries/the-thatcher-years-the-individual-and-society/)Thatcher believed the only way to reduce poverty was through elimination of the dependency culture. One of her attempts to achieve this was to 'roll back ' the welfare state through a series of welfare reforms, by raising the criteria for eligibility of government benefits. (Giddens, 2006) However, during Thatcher's reign as Prime Minister, child poverty was massively increased, where by when she stood down as Prime minister in 1990, one in three children were said to be living in households with less than half the average income. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1999/04/99/thatcher_anniversary/334316.stm)The individualistic theory of poverty is still influential and accepted by some people in modern British society and many people portray those who live off government handouts as lazy and scroungers. However, only a few sociologists' of modern Britain still accept the individualistic theories of poverty. Sociologists are now more inclined to see poverty as the result of characteristics of a social group such as a family or a community rather than that of the individual.

This essay will discuss the key points of the ‘Beveridge report’ (1942), and evaluate the significance of the report on the welfare state. In November 1942, William Beveridge presented a report called, ‘Social Insurance and Allied Services’ to parliament. This was a summary of principles to improve upon the existing welfare benefits system, to benefit working people and the population. The document proposed a new system to be operated by one governing agency, called Social Security. This would be put in place by the state after World War 2 had ended. Overall Beveridge created the most revolutionary document in our history. Beveridge has played a significant role in evolving the Welfare State over the decades. (Robinson, 2003).

The aim of this essay is to discuss and compare the British Welfare system with Germany and Sweden’s welfare systems. A welfare system is the structure of welfare provisions and services that provide a specific social need, but it is not only provided or organised solely by the government (Blakemore, 2001). It is a view that is rooted in individual exchanges between five organisations (State/Government, Market/Private Sector, Family/Kin networks, Local Communities and Civil Society). It reflects the history and cultures of different countries around the world (Haralambos, 2012). It is these providers that assume principal

Relative poverty is ‘a measurement of the resources and living conditions of parts of the population in relation to others’ (Schwartzman, 1997). This means that people, who are living in a way that deprives them of a similar standard of living that is the norm to their society, can be considered as living in poverty; relative rather than absolute (Fulcher, J & Scott, J 2007).

Social policy was introduced in the early 19th Century, post war. At this time, William Beveridge introduced the idea of a Welfare State to address poverty. He released a report for social reform known as the ‘five giants’ within society: squalor, disease, ignorance, idleness and want. The welfare state brought many positive improvements in Britain and Government passed reforms to address the poverty levels, introducing “cradle to grave “support. The National Health Service was set up which gave free health care to all and laws and Acts were put in place to help the young, the old, the sick the unemployed and the working class in times of need. The five issues raised by Beveridge

This was also a time of great social reform. The introduction of the very first welfare state was something new to the nation. The welfare state was created to assist the increasing poor population that was rampant in Britain. Additionally, the gaps between the wealthy and the working class were massive, which also indicated a need for social reform .