history essay - labour reforms

Jamie Halvorson 6GR1

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How successful were the Welfare Reforms of the Labour government 1945-‐1951 in meeting the needs of the British people?

During the beginning to the middle of the 20th Century there were slow advances in the government meeting the needs of the British population, although they did not help everyone and help solve everything. The government hired Sir William Beveridge who produced a report in 1942 (Report of the Inter-‐Departmental Committee on Social Insurance and Allied Services1) which identified 5 giants of poverty, these were; Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness. This essay will elaborate on the meaning of each of these points while coming to the conclusion if specific Welfare Reforms that the Labour government introduced between 1945 and 1951 were in fact effective in meeting the needs of the British People. In 1946 the Labour government introduced the National Insurance Act part one, this was their first real step in helping meet the needs of the population. The Act was introduced with the aim to support people from the ‘cradle to the grave’. It entitled every British worker (who paid 156 weekly contributions) to sickness pay, this was 50p per week for the first 13 weeks and then half that for the next 13 weeks. This was aimed to tackle want, this was the fact that it was expected that the government would interfere to stop people falling below the poverty line and give them basic that were essential for living. This Act can be argued as being ineffective due to the terms and conditions that workers had to abide by, such as they had to pay 156 weeks worth before they were eligible. It can also be argued to have failed in providing workers with enough money to help their families, as if you had been ill for over 13 weeks you would only receive 25p per week. The government still had other needs of the British people to tackle, therefore the argument still stands that the government where at this point unsuccessful. Disease was another giant that they had to tackle, Beveridge believed that disease was linked to financial trouble because sickness forces people to discontinue working2. In order to do so they established the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948. The NHS was the first universal health service in Britain which aimed to tackle the spread of disease such as whooping cough or polio and provide vaccinations and immunisations against sed diseases. The NHS was free at point of use, thus allowing all of the population no matter of age or financial background to use the service. There is an argument that states that the NHS was too successful, as historian Birch commented: “...the greatest single achievement in the story of the welfare state.” This can be seen as a negative as the expected clientele of the NHS almost doubled rapidly, causing the government to introduce charges for prescriptions and spectacles. This left the poor and

1 Information from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beveridge_Report 2 Information taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beveridge_Report - 5 Giant Evils - line 8



unfortunate out of reach of the necessary medication, thus the point that the NHS was too successful still stands. Here there is an argument to state that the NHS was very successful in meeting the needs of the British population in terms of families, workers and bosses, although this may be offset by the immense costs that the Government and therefore the British people endured. Even though the offset is a strong argument the improvement to the quality of life is by far a greater achievement of the Labour government, in words of Sked and Cook (historians) “...it improved the quality of life of most of the British people” thus arguing that the introduction of the NHS was successful in meeting the needs of the British people although, it did not cover the other giants; Squalor, Ignorance or Idleness. Ignorance was another one of the 5 giants that beveridge highlighted in his report he claimed it as: Ignorance by reform of the educational system.3 In order to tackle this effectively the Labour government introduced as ‘two-‐tier secondary schooling system’ that was separated by an 11 plus exam. This exam was taken by anyone that was 11 years old or older (12 in Scotland) -‐ if they passed they moved onto secondary school, if they failed they went to a college set up. There is an argument that this was ineffective due to their being so much pressure being applied to students to pass the 11 plus exam. Although, there is an opposing argument stating that this was a positive movement for Britain, this is because people who went on to secondary school were expected to stay on past 15, go to university and take the higher level or senior jobs in Britain, thus solving the problem of the skills shortages. It also allowed people from disadvantaged backgrounds to be in school and pursue a better career that could see them leave the poverty line. Ergo, the action that Labour had taken this time could be argued as being effective for people in Britain. Although the Labour government had tackled health, ignorance and partially tackled want -‐ they still had to solve the problems of Squalor and Idleness. After the war Britain suffered a major blow in terms of numbers of houses, as thousands were either destroyed or damaged. This was identified in the Beveridge report as Squalor -‐ the need for adequate housing4. In a response the Labour government issued the Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act of 1944, and the construction of 157,000 prefabricated houses (prefabs), these could be built easily and quickly, which helped with the homelessness situation that was occurring, although there were never enough built to suffice the conditions, leading to scrutiny from outside of the government. Labour introduced The New Towns Act of 1946 -‐ this commissioned 12 newly designed communities to be built, an example of this would Livingston,

3 Information taken from: http://ebookbrowse.com/the-beveridge-report-doc-d107427076 - The Five Giants - line 12 4 Information taken from: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=398028&section=1.2



Scotland. This mainly aimed to tackle the problem of overcrowding in major cities, also identified in the report. It can be agreed that due to the inadequate housing scheme that was introduced in 1944 that Labour did not fully meet the needs of the British people, although the latter part of the argument concerns The New Towns Act, which can be argued as being successful in accommodating the needs of the British people (although there remained a shortfall until 1951). The last of the five giants that concerned Beveridge was Idleness -‐in other words, the need for gainful employment. This did not necessarily need to be tackled by the Labour government as unemployment was practically non-‐existent. Although the Labour government did take measures in order to maintain what could be described as full employment at the time. Firstly the British Government started to partly cover the costs of higher education in Britain, thus leading to an increase of 60% in student numbers. This meant that people had the necessary qualifications to take on highly skilled work, meaning that it was unlikely that a shortage of workers would occur. The Labour government then nationalised 20% of Britain’s industries, this meant that the government had greater control over employment and ensured people that there would always be work. The collaboration of the above points leads to the argument that the British government did deal effectively with the giant that was Idleness. Ergo, it can be argued that the Labour government did deal with the problems and met the needs of the British people sufficely. Although at points the Labour government did not deal with the problem directly, they did set up a foundation that future governments could work upon.The introduction of the said acts, and the action that the government took, strengthens the argument and the point that the Labour government met the needs of the British people between 1945-‐1951.

history essay - labour reforms

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