The Labour Government as The Creator Of The Welfare State

The Labour Government as The Creator Of The Welfare State

A Welfare State is a system in which the government undertakes

responsibility for the well being of its population, through

unemployment insurance, old age pensions and other social security

measures. In order to achieve this the Labour Government of 1945-51

introduced a number of reforms, including the National Insurance Act

of 1946 and the Education Act. They also managed to achieve full

employment, a target never met before in Britain. However, they are

not the only reason for the arrival of the Welfare State. The Liberal

Government of 1906-14 also deserves some credit, as well as the

coalition government formed during World War Two, changing social

attitudes in Britain, the Beveridge Report and Wartime Socialism. All

of these provided some movement towards a Welfare State and as such

compete against the Labour Government for the title of "Creator of the

Welfare State."

In order to discuss the effectiveness of the Labour Government's

legislation for creating a Welfare State Sir William Beveridge's

definition of the "Five Giants" can be used. These are the five main

problems which he felt had to be dealt with in order to create a

Welfare State. They were "Want, Squalor, Idleness, Disease and

ignorance." To deal with the problem of "Want" Labour based their Act

on Beveridge's own plan of action. This was the "Social Security

System", where by all working people, of all classes would pay weekly

contributions in to a state Insurance Fund. In return the people would

receive cover in the form of sickness, medical, maternity, old age,

unemployment, widow's, orphan's, industri...

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... whatever their class was. As a result nearly everyone was more

accepting to the ideas of sharing and looking after each other.

Overall, it is apparent that the Labour Government of 1945-51 does

deserve the description of "Creators of the Welfare State." Although

the Liberals of 1906-14 did start off the movement and made a number

of changes to the Britain of their time, it was still far from being

complete by the end of their term in parliament. They also left some

of the "Five Giants" completely untouched and so were not as effective

as the Labour Parliament. The other contributing factors, such as

Wartime Socialism, although major factors, cannot claim the title

alone, as individually they did not create as large an effect as the

Labour Party. It alone greatly affected and managed to complete the

Welfare State.