The Liberal Welfare Reforms
What was Britain like in 1900?
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Poverty- under paid, poor housing and sanitation, child workers,
little education, worked long hours, little support in times of need,
sweated trades
Booth and Rowntree
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Booth in his investigations in London found that only 1% of the poor were the undeserving
poor (drunk, idle) and that 30% of people in London lived below the poverty line- poverty
line= unable to afford the basics such as food, clothing and rent
Rowntree studied poverty in York- he wrote a boom explaining his findings Poverty: A
study of Town life in 1901. He found that 27% of people lived below the poverty line.
Both demonstrated that poverty was the result of unemployment, low wages, illness and
old age, casual trades and trade depressions. His findings were shocking because York was
supposed to be a ‘better off’ town- what would other poor places be like?
Implication of findings: the scale of poverty was huge- it was a problem for the
government. The poor were poor for other reasons (unemployment, low wages, illness,
death of a wage earner etc) poverty was not their fault- this meant that the state
(government) should help them!
Why did the Liberals introduce reforms?
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National efficiency- worries for the state of the country. In the Boer War (1899-1902)
recruits were poor and in some areas 69% were not fit enough-there were worries for
Britain’s security and her empire. The government set up a Physical Deterioration
Committee to investigate the problems- its findings influenced New Liberals like Lloyd
George.
There was also the fear that Britain’s workers who made the country’s money were too ill
and unfit to be effective workers. It was thought that unless we dealt with poverty
England would fall behind America and Germany.
Findings of Booth and Rowntree and the scale of poverty- 30% of people couldn’t afford
the basics- the scale of the problem was huge and there was lots of evidence to prove
that poverty was a serious issue and that there were lots of it.
Political rivalry- fear of the Labour Party. They thought giving people reforms would win
votes from Labour and the Conservative Parties.
The role of key individuals- Churchill and Lloyd George- New liberals who were willing to
introduce reform. They believed the state should help the poorest people
New Liberalism- new attitudes that believed people were poor because of low wages, age,
illness and unemployment not laziness. Lloyd George and Winston Churchill were new
Liberals
The scale of the problem: new evidence was showing that poor were dying at a low age.
Life expectancy for poor men and women was about 45. In 1900 there were about 163
deaths per thousand (today it is about 12 per thousand). There were more millionaires
than ever before but the top 10% of the population owned 92% of the country’s wealth.
What reforms did the Liberals introduce?
Children
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School Meals Act 1906- Local authorities could give children
free school meals (didn’t have to, so less than half did) BUT,
by 1914, 14 million free school meals had been served up!
School Medical Inspections 1907- children to have medical inspections- medicine not given
and the poorest couldn’t afford it
Children and Young Persons Act (Children’s charter) 1908- children couldn’t go to adult
prisons they went to borstals instead. Children under 16 couldn’t buy tobacco or alcohol,
children were given special status and parents could be prosecuted for neglect
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Medical inspections 1912- free medical treatment was given to children that needed it, it
was left to local authorities to provide this and not all provided this treatment
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Old Age Pensions Act 1908 (came into force in January 1909) all people over the age of 70
and who had earned under £31. They would receive 7s 6d for a couple and 5s for an individual.
People criticised the act- most people didn’t live until 70,
the sum was too low to live on and not enough people were covered
On the other hand it was non-contributory (people didn’t have
to pay into it) and it established the principle that the state
should help the poor and old. It was a small measure but a big step
650,000 claimed a pension in the first year!
Old
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Unemployed
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Churchill introduced Labour Exchanges in 1909- this was like
a job centre that advertised jobs and allowed people to get
jobs easier and quicker when they were unemployed. By 1913
they were putting 3,000 people into jobs everyday.
Workers
National Insurance Part I 1911- all men and women on low paid jobs earning under £160 a
year had to pay into this. The worker had to contribute 4d a week. The worker
would get 13 weeks of sick pay at 10s a week then a further 13 weeks at 5s. Workers resented the
extra monetary burden that many of the poorest couldn’t afford to pay. It also
excluded support for the workers families and many claimed it was not enough
support for families to survive. 14 million people were covered by this Act!
National Insurance Part II 1912- Unemployment Insurance- only for certain trades (ship
building, engineering etc.) they were required to make a contribution of 2 ½ d a week. They
were paid 7s 6d for 15 weeks. The problem was that this was not enough for a family
to live on.
What did people think of the reforms?
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Labour- felt that the reforms did not go far enough, that more help was needed. These were a socialist
party (believed in sharing out the country’s wealth amongst everyone fairly) and thought that more
reforms should be paid for from the riches taxes. They particularly criticised the National Insurance
because workers had to fund their own benefits from already low wages.
Conservatives- felt that the reforms would make people lazy and would lead to a ‘nanny state’ where
people did not help themselves. A lot of their supporters were rich and resented reforms like the pension
which was paid for through tax. They particularly hated the People’s Budget (1.2 million of tax payers
money went to reforms) which increased tax to pay for reforms for the poor.
Workers- resented the deductions from their wages
But
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The Liberals changed attitudes towards the poor- the state accepted responsibility for helping
the poorest people in their time of need
They were not designed to help everyone- just to make sure that the poorest were helped when
they needed it the most, so that they did not fall below the poverty line and a lot of people
were grateful for what they received.
On the other hand
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They left some problems unsolved- they didn’t cover all people. For example National Insurance
didn’t cover families or all industries/workers. There were still a lot of poor people left out.
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Some reforms like those for children were not implemented fully, so some children lost out
because local authorities didn’t give free school meals or medical treatment.