The Beveridge report
Fabian Society formed in 1884, lead by the Sidney and Beatrice Webb who had strong views on the moral values of social (or socialist) provision and had thinking based on poor laws and the relief of distress, were the first to produce a report based on Majority and Minority of welfare. This report failed as all the members, the right-wing critics of state welfare, could not agree about the fact that the state should be the provider for welfare services.
The Beveridge Report is a report that led to the establishment of a welfare system by the state of social security and the National Health Service (NHS) after the end of the war.
Sir William Beveridge a highly regarded liberal economist, was the author of the report which was known as Social Insurance and Allied Services, that got published by the coalition government and which was presented to the British parliament on 1st December 1942.
It contained a summary of principles that were based on social surveys carried out between wars, that were necessary to banish poverty and want from Britain, by aiming to provide a comprehensive system of social insurance ‘from cradle to grave’.
'Now, when the war is abolishing landmarks of every kind, is the opportunity for using experience in a clear field. A revolutionary moment in the world's history is a time for revolutions, not for patching.'
It covered topics of poverty, old age, low birth rates, unemployment, disability and retirement, that were based around Five areas of society also known as the FIVE EVIL GIANTS, that prevented Britain from becoming a modern society after post war, which were:
o Want – Poverty or need of financial support & health care
National Insurance and Assistance schemes were needed to ...
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...ew towns had to be built ie milton keynes
o 1949 Access to the countryside Acts
Opened up a series of public footpaths, moslty aimed to keep population health
o Housing Acts 1946/1949
Although Labour’s building programme compares poorly to previous governments, people are not too critical of them over this considering the level of house destruction during the War along with the lack of building materials, increase in marriage and “baby boom” after the War.
Advantages
Dis-advantages
Local authorities given financial assistance and access to building materials (which were in low supply at the end of the War) to build 1.25 million new permanent homes
Disadvantages: No where near enough new homes were built and many people remained in “prefab” homes, army barracks and even train carriages by the end of 1951.
o New Towns Act (1946)
Advantages
Dis-advantages
The history of welfare systems dates back to ancient China and Rome, some of the first institutions known to have established some form of a welfare system. In both of these nations, their governments created projects to provide food and aid to poor, unemployed, or unable families and individuals, however these were based on “moral responsibility.” Later in history, in 1500’s England, parliament passed laws that held the monarchy responsible for providing assistance to needy families by providing jobs and financial aid. These became known as “poor laws” (Issitt).
“…the most important result was that it awakened in us a strong, practical sense of esprit de corps, which in the field developed into the finest thing that arose out of the war – comradeship.” (p23)
...ing the Great War and the lessons learned will forever affect economic, technological and psychological futures around the world.
It is well known that the Social Security Act of 1935 created a federally financed and federally administered retirement insurance program for people who had worked in certain sectors of the economy and had paid payroll taxes on their wages. What is less known is that the Act also created a federally financed but state-administered program called Aid to Dependent Children (“ADC,” later to become Aid to Families with Dependent Children, or “AFDC”)? As Sheldon H. Danziger and Jeffrey S. Lehman stated in “Welfare”, “When Americans speak of “welfare” or “relief” they are usually alluding to ADC and its successor programs. From the outset, the design and implementation of ADC highlighted the central conflicts of welfare policy. Issues of race, gender, work, and parenting style were, then as now, matters of great social tension”(Danziger). From 1935 to 1960 the only changes to the welfare structure was the inclusion of widows and disabled people into the social security system.
Davis, Kennith. “The Birth of Social Security.” In Visions of America’s Past, edited by William
...lfare State in England and Germany, 1850-1914: Social Policies Compared. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007. Print.
Katz, Micheal B. "The American Welfare State." History In Focus Institute of Historical Research, Oct. 2008. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
Dolgoff, R. & Feldstein, D. (2003). Understanding social welfare (7th ed). New York, Allen & Bacon
Before the social security act of 1935 the support of the elderly was a “state matter”, the state held the power to regulate money that was given to the people. The elderly and physically disabled had to rely on their sates to implement programs to help them financially and most states during the great depression didn’t see this problem as a necessity. The Roosevelt administration caught this and created social security on a national level. “The social security act of 1935, an act which sought to provide general welfare by establishing a system of federal old-age benefits, and by enabling the several states to make more adequate provisions” (SSA). The key word in the quote is “federal old age benefits” which means the...
The history of welfare goes all the way back to the roman empire when the first emperor gave citizens food that could not afford it. Then, social welfare was enlarged in china the song dynasty government supported many programs that made retirement homes, clinics and the welfare system for the poor. In 1601 the first welfare systems in europe that provided food for the poor. This system then moved its way into bigger countries such as germany and great britain. This expanded to the United States in the time of the Great Depression when president Roosevelt introduced the New Deal that focused on public spending projects instead of cash payments. The Social security act was amended in 1939.
Kennedy A. (2014) Castle Vale Housing Action Trust: Lessons in Regenerating Communities Lecture, University of Birmingham.
social integration and solidarity, and in Britain these aims were sorely wanted after world war two .
.... Moore suggests that revolution is a two-step open spiral. From the starting point, society has to go back and destroy the corruption. Once the injustice disappears, society can start rebuilding its values and move forward. If the staging is efficient, then there will be no more need of destruction, and society can solely focus on creation. However, to reach such a stage of reconstruction, it is not only necessary to destroy the past but also to understand the value of power, freedom and one's inevitable social and political responsibility. This understanding is a crucial defensive mechanism since oppressive regimes can only take power from those willing to give it up.
Social Security began during the first term of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's, as a gauge to apply "social insurance" during the 1930’s Great Depression, when poverty rates of senior citizens exceeded that of 50 percent. The Act was an effort to constraint unexpected and unsuspecting danger in the present life: including old age, disability, poverty, unemployment, and the burden of widowers with and lacking children. President Roosevelt’s opponents however acknowledged that the Act was that of socialism.
The birth of the social security program started as a measurement to implement “social insurance” during the great depression of the 1930s, when the New York stock exchange crash in 1929 America then slipped into economic depression with unemployment exceeded 25% so president Roosevelt’s sign the social security act to help the poverty rates among the senior citizen which exceeded 50%, since then social security has became increasingly controversial.