History of the Welfare State in the United Kingdom essays

History of the Welfare State in the United Kingdom essays The UK's welfare system has a long history and has evolved as a response to social, economic and political changes in society. The birth of the welfare state after WWII was a watershed in British history. The newly elected Labor Government "took on the task of setting up a 'welfare state' that would systematically tackle Beveridge's 'five giants'. The creation of a new, more equal society was the key task of government. Social policy was at the top of the political agenda". (Walsh et al, p.46). Elaborating more on the welfare state as far as Beveridge's report is concerned, William Beveridge's report according to Chandler (2002), was to help the citizens of Britain to combat the five giant evils; squalor, ignorance, want, idleness and disease. He goes on to explain that the report was very vital in the sense that Britain was then at war and filth, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and diseases were common due to the daily bombardment of Britain that crippled and even destroyed most industries, people's homes etc. Before the report, Beveridge was in the liberal reforms from 1906 to 1914 which benefited just few people in Britain hence the gap between the poor and the rich became very huge and inequality became part of the British society. Furthermore, according to Harling (2001), the reforms after Beveridge's report did not take into account wage earners families in other words; this reform did not benefit people in employment regardless of their income. These wage earners did not get any entitlement for medical treatment, because of this, most care takers especially mothers put off any medical treatment for themselves in order to afford treatment for their children which was very disturbing because most people lost their lives because of this unequal system of health care in Britain (Harling 2001). Nevertheless, Chandler (2001) explains that, the Rowntree report conducted in 1936 showed that want or poverty was still a big pro...