causes of creation of welfare state

Question 1

ww2 caused welfare state

Answer 1

resulted in wide consensus that welfare provisions needed radical improvement - unfairness and inconsistent

“Total war” prompted “total solutions”
- rationing = limit to purchases = sharing (cooperation and acceptance of gov interference)
- bombing = community spirit (9 months , 43000 killed)= houses needed to be built + welfare support for widows and orphans , casualties created demand for NHS
evacuation = mix of upper and lower class members as more affluent families took in the poorer. Rich realised the scale of poverty in “black spots” of Britain = acceptance of change

Success of state directed war economy and involvement in peoples lives = increased political and popular belief in state intervention to improve peoples lives - Keynes economic views had survived in war = theory fund expansion of welfare state
creation of white paper 1946: A National Health Service - wartime coalitions government vision for comprehensive free and unified health service by publicly organised service. Acknowledged that progress had been made to make services they were not accessible to all . Not intending to replace replace existing arrangements

Question 2

beverages report - result of WW2

Answer 2

Beverage report

Beveridge investigated social security in Britain . Set up by Churchill to prevent disappoint like “homes for heroes’ scheme after WW1
Reward for war = create a more sympathetic state
Exposed weaknesses in British society, fix giants - disease want ignorance squalor and idleness + weaknesses exposed by the war
= foundations of the welfare state “from cradle to grave”
Suggested creation of family allowances, free health service, full employment and fast rate of social insurance benefits - to abolish poverty and avoid means testing and Santa state- to avoid dependence

635,000 copies sold ,winning the war made these prospects seem realistic and 
achievable. 


Question 3

labour government

Answer 3

Won election with “lets face the future” slogan - promised to implement the recommendations of the beverage report and introduce welfare state

1944- Education Act : compulsory free education , tripartite system
Family allowance act : weekly payments for every child .
1946 National health service act : whole population entitled to scheme of free medical and hospital treatment

• Following the landslide win, Bevan was appointed minister of health, responsible for establishing the National Health Service
• 1948, the government took over responsibility for all medical services and there was free diagnosis and treatment for all
• The NHS remains Labour’s greatest monument
• It was achieved only after two years of resistance by the medical establishment, with consultants threatening strike action and the British Medical Association warning about bureaucracy and expense
• If Conservatives had been in power, it would’ve been unlikely for the welfare state to have been created as Churchill proved resistant to any form of free health care system
• Churchill’s Tories voted against the formation of the NHS 21 times before the act was passed, including both the Second and Third reading
• Churchill sincerely believed that the NHS was a “first step to turn Britain into a National Socialist economy.”