The Creation of the Welfare State
Source Based
At the beginning of the Second World War, welfare was quite expensive.
Pregnant women who were poor had to pay a '£2 deposit and another 10
shillings', free treatment was not given to poor women. There was an
antenatal and a postnatal clinic but the woman had not used it because
of lack of money. She didn't receive any help at all. This person also
said 'I had to walk down to the maternity home,' this tells us that
the government provide free ambulance for pregnant women. This woman
was quite poor, 'hole in my shoe,' this tells us that she had to save
up for her pregnancy which meant she had no money to take good care of
herself. Life for every woman wasn't the same some other poor women
must have saved more and went to clinics but he the woman who had
written this source did not get any help.
2. Does the evidence of source C support the evidence of sources A
and B about welfare at the beginning of the Second World War?
Explain your answer.
Source C does support sources A and B. All three sources have related
information about the lack of money and efficient hospital and medical
care, they were also all written in the same period of time.
Sources A, B and C are experiences from the 'early 1940's', which were
being talked about and recorded in the 1980's. In both sources A and C
they explain about how they did not get money to pay for health care,
for example in source A she mentions 'At the maternity home we had to
pay £2.00 deposit and 10 shilling when she came… I never went to the…
We got no help with anything.' Source C states 'Dad had small wage… it
was too much for him to be able to go to the doctors… and we lost
Dad.' Due to the lack of money many people died as results of poor
This mini-paper will discuss the social welfare system. The mini-paper includes a discussion of welfare Policy, residual and institutional approach, and what is Social Welfare and Social Security. Midgely, (2009), pointed out that social welfare systems deliver services that facilitate and empower our society, especially to those persons who require assistance in meeting their basic human needs. The goal of social welfare is to provide social services to citizens from diverse cultures, and examples include Medicare, Medicaid, and food benefits. Midgley,( 2009).
slipped into a diabetic coma. His body was not agreeing with all the years of
She dropped everything in her life at that point, because she knew that there was a problem and she felt she had to go help these people in need.
all of her money orders to go start a new life, she got worried that
In the summer of 1996, Congress finally passed and the President signed the "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996", transforming the nation's welfare system. The passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act sets the stage for ongoing reconstruction of welfare systems on a state-by-state basis. The combined programs will increase from nearly $100 billion this year to $130 billion per year in 6 years. Programs included are for food stamps, SSI, child nutrition, foster care, the bloss grant program for child- care, and the new block grant to take the place of AFDC. All of those programs will seek $700 billion over the next 6 years, from the taxpayers of America. This program in its reformed mode will cost $55 billion less than it was assumed to cost if there were no changes and the entitlements were left alone. The current welfare system has failed the very families it was intended to serve. If the present welfare system was working so well we would not be here today.
The WWII Proposal for the Provision of a Welfare State The proposals made during the Second World War for the provision of a Welfare State were made in order to eliminate poverty from the country. Various proposals were made that aimed to achieve this. One proposal, which was the main aim of the "Beveridge Report" was to abolish Want by providing social insurance for all: this meant providing various benefits and making people pay contributions, both depending on the class of the individual. Retirement pensions (over 60 for women, over 65 for men) and children's allowances would be provided. Employees would get benefits for unemployment and disability, and employers, traders, independent workers and people of working age without a job would get training benefit.
For many years, private charities, along with local governments, have cared for the poor through a multitude of economic security programs. These programs comprised the welfare state that sought to enact policies (after the Great Depression) in order to promote economic security for all Americans.
The United States is often referred to as a ‘reluctant welfare state.’ There are various reasons for this description. One of the primary reasons for this is the differences and diversity of the political parties which are the motivating forces that control government. The Liberal Party, for instance supports government safety nets and social service programs for those in need. “Liberals believe in government action to achieve equal opportunity and equality for all.” ("Studentnews," 2006) They believe it is the responsibility of government to ensure that the needs of all citizens are met, and to intervene to solve problems. The responsibility of government is to alleviate social ills, to protect civil liberties and sustain individual and human rights. Liberals support most social and human service programs; such as TANF, including long-term welfare, housing programs, government regulated health care, Medicare, Medicaid, social security, and educational funding. Their goal is to create programs that promote equal opportunity regardless of gender, age, race, orientation, nationality or religion, along with many others. Liberals believe that government participation is essential and a means to bring about fairness and justice to the American way of life.
The Modern Welfare State of the 1906-1914 Before 1906, the British governments had little involvement in the everyday lives of the people: Gladstone in particular advocated the policies of ‘self help’ and Lassiez-faire’- the government should have minimal interference in the lives of citizens. However, from 1906 onwards, the British public began to benefit from a number of reforms such as pensions and childcare which they had never received before. Whether this could be described as the beginnings of the welfare state depends on the perspective: certainly government involvement increased but these reforms didn’t affect every citizen in all areas of life, suggesting that the changes weren’t as dramatic as they appeared.
Living in the United States most people rely on the government to construct our society to better the people. The gap between rich and poor in our society significantly varies. In America, the government offers special programs to help those who fall below the poverty line. This is well known as welfare. The word welfare comes from a positive definition known as “well-being”, but most Americans would debate that welfare has become a disaster to our society as they increased welfare dependency, illegitimate babies, and family break-ups. In fact I agree with these clams, poverty programs have been abused by many Americans, causing more pressures and strains to American welfare.
The United States is sometimes described as a “reluctant welfare state.” I agree with this statement. Too often there are programs created by our government that, although may be lined with good intentions, end up failing in their main purpose. The government may, and hopefully does, seek to help its citizens. However, by applying unreasonable qualifying or maintenance criteria, or too many restrictions that bar people from even receiving aid at all, they end up with many more problems than solutions. Three examples of policies that do this are: Medicare, No Child Left Behind, and TANF, or the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
Since the Welfare reform law was introduced in 1996 it has impacted American society greatly. The new welfare policy, named the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), replaced the Aid to Family and Dependent Children (AFDC) program; they have five known differences that only affect the ones who need the assistance. Critics argue that the TANF has negatively impacted the society while some argue that it has not. Linda Burnham, author of “Welfare Reform, Family Hardship & Woman of Color,” asserts that “welfare reform has increased the hardship faced by many women leaving welfare for work and their movement into low-wage jobs, exposes them to higher level of housing insecurities, homelessness, food insecurity, and hunger.” She also argues that women of color “are especially vulnerable to the negative impact of welfare reform” (38).
had to carry on working the family farm by herself. With the death of his
her own life and she either wanted to have sex or go back to sleep.
she made to her dying mother to ?keep the home together as long as she