How Did The Welfare State Set Up After Ww2

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

Although the welfare state had been evolving before the Beveridge committee report, but it was the Beveridge committee report that gave birth to the welfare state legislations after the second world war; these legislations includes The Education Act (1944), The Family Allowance Act (1945), The National Health Service Act (1946), The National Assistance Act 1948, The Children's Act 1948, and The Housing Act (1949). The

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.

Before the National Health Service (NHS) came into force in 1948, there was the Poor Law which was introduced in 1601 and was paid for by imposing property taxes. In 1834 the Poor Law Amendment Act was brought in and was designed to reduce the cost of looking after the poor, and to encourage poor people to work. In 1942 Sir William Beveridge unveiled the Welfare Foundations, the plan offered care to all from birth through to death. The NHS was established as a result of the 1944 White Paper. The 1946 NHS Act came into effect on the 5th July 1948, and was founded by Health Secretary Aneurin Bevan. 1962 saw the publication of the Porritt Report, which raised concerns about the NHS being separated into three parts – hospitals, general practices and local health authorities. Enoch Powell’s 1962 Hospital Plan approves the development of district general

The National Health Service was founded on the 5th July 1948. Winston Churchill was the prime minister at the time .The government decided to commission a report, addressing the ways in which Britain should be rebuilt after the Second World War had ended. The Beveridge report of 1942 (written by William Beveridge) identified five main points that needed to be addressed. These were Want (addressed poverty) disease (the lack of healthcare) ignorance (no education) squalor (represented the lack of housing) and idleness (unemployment). A Lot of politicians were confident that Winston Churchill would lead the conservatives to success in the general election. However this was not the case, clement Attlee of the labour party introduced all the

William Beveridge was a man whom was asked by government to write a report on the best and most effective ways to help those on low incomes. This was after the Second World War when people felt they needed rewarding, which the government responded to by promising to create a more equal society. In Beveridge’s report in December 1942, he proposed that all people of a working age should contribute, which would benefit people who were sick, unemployed, retired, or widowed.

In America today, just over ten million people are on unemployment insurance, one hundred and ten million people are on welfare, and the total government spending annually is around one hundred and thirty billion dollars (Welfare Statistics). The welfare state is a political system based on the proposition that the government has the individual responsibility to ensure that the minimum standard of living is met for all citizens. Specifically, in the matters of health care, public education, employment, and social security, the welfare state assumes all responsibility. According to John Rawls, “In a just society the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests. The only thing that permits us to acquiesce in an erroneous theory is the lack of a better one; analogously, an injustice is tolerable only when it is necessary to avoid an even greater injustice“(Rawls). In the 1840s, Otto Von Bismarck, the first Chancellor of Germany, was the father of the modern welfare state. He built the program to win over the support of the working middle class in Germany and ultimately reduce the outflow of immigrants to the U.S., where welfare did not exist (Welfare State). In the United States, not all companies provided workers with benefits, thus the workers appealed to the government, giving rise to the first form of welfare capitalism.

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.

The Second World War had left a considerable impact, in its wake - homelessness, disease and casualties. Directly, it had led to the establishment of an Emergency Medical Service. Its task was to oversee the treatment of civilian bombing casualties. At this point, existing authorities such as local councils, ran the hospitals. This was within a regional framework, with each role being decided on by the Ministry of Health. The war however did not create new welfare services, but it did ‘create the political will to change the basis on which these services were offered’ (Webster, 2001) Comprehensive proposals were further pushed forward by the publication of the Beveridge Report in 1942 on Social Insurance and Allied Services. It identified the main issues that were faced by British society and endorsed the idea of a comprehensive health service. Two years later, the White Paper, ‘A National Health Service’ (February 1944) was published. The paper summarised the overall

The Social Security Act grew out of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Committee on Economic Security and was signed into law in August of 1935 (Martin & Weaver, 2005). The Act created several programs that provide income security to the old-age, unemployed, and families with children (Martin & Weaver, 2005). The original Act allowed for provisions to research health insurance, but the Medicare program would not exist until 30 years later (Martin & Weaver, 2005).

In 1935, Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the Social Security Act which, among other things, provided for the financial, medical, and material needs of the poor (Komisar 125,128). Since then, there have many additions and reforms to the bill, none of which has served to quell the controversy surrounding the effectiveness of the welfare system in the United States. The main concerns of the distribution of welfare dollars and resources can be answered by the questions ?Who gets assistance?? and ?How much do they receive??. The U.S. welfare system is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, which attempts to answer these questions through a system of minimum incomes, government-calculated poverty levels, number of children, health problems, and many other criteria. This complicated system leads to one of the critiques of the welfare system?that it is too large and inefficient. President Lyndon Johnson declared a ?War on Poverty? in 1964 designed to alleviate the burden of the poor and established the Food Stamp program the next year (Patterson 139). In 1996, a major welfare reform bill was passed that placed time limits on welfare assistance, required able participants to actively seek employment, and implemented additional services for the needy (Patterson 217).

over the age of sixty-five, and it also created unemployment insurance. In 1936, Aid to

United States Government Welfare began in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. Franklin D. Roosevelt thought of this system as an aid for low-income families whose men were off to war, or injured while at war. The welfare system proved to be beneficial early on by giving families temporary aid, just enough to help them accommodate their family’s needs. Fast forward almost 90 years, and it has become apparent that this one once helpful system, has become flawed. Welfare itself and the ideologies it stands on, contains decent fundamentals; furthermore, this system of aid needs only to be reformed to better meet the needs of today’s society.

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).