Summary – Beveridge Report and the ‘Five Giants’ of Poverty

1. Summary – Beveridge Report and the ‘Five Giants’ of Poverty S5/6 From Cradle to the Grave

2. 4 Headings you must take notes on • The importance of William Beveridge • The main points of the Beveridge Report and its importance • Progress made towards the Beveridge Report by 1945 • The 1944 Education Act and some criticisms of it

3. Main Points of Beveridge Report • The Beveridge Report made several recommendations of how to overcome poverty. • A Government Minister to be appointed to control all the benefits schemes • A national health service should be set up • Standard weekly National Insurance Contributions to be made by people in work • Unemployed people to have the right to payments for an indefinite period • Payments to be made at a standard rate, without a means test • Benefits to include Old Age Pensions, maternity grants, pensions for widows and people injured at work • Family allowances to be introlduced **Summarise these recommendations in your jotter**

4. Enthusiastically received by public, press and parliament 97 Labour and 22 Liberal and Conservatives voted for the report to be put into operation asap. **Summarise in jotters** Criticised by others Some did want the Governments interference. Others worried about the cost of such a plan – extra funding ? Some also believed it did not cater for everyone ie.disabled people or single parent families Reaction to Report

5. So why was the report so important? • For 4 main reasons • Simplified existing benefit schemes and generalised level of payments • It had ground-breaking ideas – that society could and should fight the five giants of poverty; people had freedom to do things and the freedom from things like disease, want etc; the scheme should be universal ie applied to everyone. • Recognised the belief that people were entitled to benefits as they had contributed to the state when they were working (this took away the stigma of state-help) • The scheme that was proposed was the same for everyone. All working people would pay the same into the scheme and get the same out of it. This meant everyone got a fair deal. **Summarise in jotters**

6. What Progress was made towards the Beveridge Report before 1945 • The Labour Party is generally credited with putting the Report into action, but the coalition government did at least make a start. • 1943: a ministry to supervise ibnsurance benefits was set up 1943: Ministry for Town and County Planning was set up and immediately produced proposals for new towns to ease congestion around London • 1945: the Family Allowance was passed • The Government also published a number of proposals for future action (White Papers) on the national health service and employment policy. All of these showed that the Coalition government accepted much of the Report. For the most part however, action taken by the Coalition government was limited as Churchill wanted to concentrate on winning the war before turning his head to domestic matters. The exception was the area of education. • The Butler Education Act (1944)

7. The Butler Education Act (1944) • Evacuation had shown the need for universal improvement in education • Education was thought to be an important way to fight poverty. • It made for an educated workforce who could expect better paid jobs. • The Education Act created the job of Minister for Education • For the first time, three stages of education were defined: Primary, Secondary and Further. • Fees for local authority schools were abolished so there was free education for all up to school leaving age (although not at grammar schools). This was set at 15 from 1945.

8. Criticisms • A grammar school pupil could expect to go on to university and then on to a professional job. • A secondary modern school pupil would do practical subjects and then do a skilled or semi-skilled trade. • Some argue that young people from poorer backgrounds were discriminated against because they were more likely to go to a secondary modern.

9. At the end of the war Churchill and the Conservatives fought the election on the Individualist idea that people would look after themselves and social security would be there if they needed it. They believed private enterprise was still the best way of creating wealth. Clement Atlee and Labour Party fought on Socialist ideas of the state looking after the individual, that social services were available to all citizens and that welath should be shared more equally What happened next? The 1945 General Election ConservativesLabour The results were 393 seats for Labour and 213 for the Conservatives. Churchill’s ‘lukewarm’ attitude to the Beveridge Report did not match how excited the public were about it. Ultimately, it lost him and his party the election.