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Social Welfare in Britain

Social Welfare in Britain. Revision: Autumn Term From poor laws to the 1980s. SWIB: Revision Lecture 1. Themes of welfare debate past & present Promotion of work Preference for means-testing – ‘targeting’ Issues of unwaged care & social rights Main shifts and changes:

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Social Welfare in Britain

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  1. Social Welfare in Britain Revision: Autumn Term From poor laws to the 1980s

  2. SWIB: Revision Lecture 1 • Themes of welfare debate past & present • Promotion of work • Preference for means-testing – ‘targeting’ • Issues of unwaged care & social rights • Main shifts and changes: • from local (poor law) to national • creation of NHS (?) • Purpose of lecture: revisit the first term

  3. Old poor law and its critics • Rising costs of pauperism • Agricultural revolution and falling demand for rural labour (seasonality) • Industrial revolution: ‘outwork’ vanishes • Post Napoleonic war dislocations • Demographic issues • Rise of classical political economy • Who pays? (Landowning classes) • ‘Idle poor’: myth or reality?

  4. Nineteenth Century Welfare • Poor Law: from Old to New (1834) • Less eligibility • The workhouse test (& family responsibility) • Uniformity and centralisation • The deserving /undeserving divide: continuing debate • Widows & orphans • The COS distinction • The aged and infirm - and sick

  5. Industrialisation and public health • Urbanisation and infection • Environment and its health consequences • From sanitary engineering (Chadwick) • To medical provision (Simon) The shift in professional authority • Who pays? Ratepayer politics • Centralised professionalism v. urban democracy

  6. Crisis and resolution (1880-1914) • Crises: • Poor law finance • Physical deterioration (Boer War) • Rise of labour movement • National efficiency & labour market reform • Resolution • Infant welfare & school meals / medical inspection • Labour Exchanges • Old Age Pensions • National Insurance (unemployment & health)

  7. Interwar mass unemployment • Causes – post-war excess capacity • Overvaluing the currency (gold standard) • International trade instability • Consequences – depressed areas • Resolutions: - • Early: extend unemployment benefits • Later ‘tightening up’ (Household Means Test) • ‘low pay = more jobs’ (pushing wages down) • ‘riding out the Slump’ (1930s)

  8. World War 2 and Welfare • 1930s = the ‘Devil’s Decade’ • Total war • Better future for present sacrifice (morale) • Government powers (money, men & materials) • Labour shortages (health reform) • Consequences • Beveridge Report (post-war Labour reforms) • NHS

  9. Post-war ‘welfare state’ 1 • Advantages: • Universality, uniformity • Health care for all. • Politics of full employment • Results: dwindling poverty (? The result of full employment or welfare support?)

  10. Post-war welfare state 2 • Criticisms from political left • Welfare still work-based (residual means tests) • Feminist critique – sustains female dependency • Marxist critique – sustains class inequality • Criticisms from political right • High costs burden economic growth • Universalism wastes resources • Welfare creates social dependency

  11. Conclusions: historical trends • Centralisation in the name of social justice • Perpetuation of less eligibility (maintenance of work incentives) • Work efficiency and construction of welfare • Non-wage earners as second class citizens? • The significance of family (and implications for women)

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