fcs UK homework

Question 1

Legacy of the 1930s- shift to Welfare Statism

Answer 1

People wanted a government that helped them after the legacy of the 1930s and regional inequality it exposed

Question 2

Rationing- shift to Welfare Statism

Answer 2

Largely equalised society
Made people healthier (difficult to access unhealthy food, tobacco, alcohol)

Question 3

War- shift to Welfare Statism

Answer 3

People got used to government intervention in the economy and involvement in people’s lives

Question 4

Beveridge Report (1942)- shift to Welfare Statism

Answer 4

Set out a vision for a more comprehensive welfare state

Question 5

Vision- Beveridge Report

Answer 5

William Beveridge set out a vision for a more comprehensive welfare state
Ministry of Information found report had support from all elements of society

Question 6

5 Giants- Beveridge Report

Answer 6

Argued five giants needed to be conquered:
squalor, ignorance, want, idleness, disease

Question 7

Universal Benefits- Beveridge Report

Answer 7

Report advocated universal benefits
This rejected the means test: Flat (same) rate of contributions from all wage earners to pay for comprehensive welfare benefits and flat rate of benefits irrespective of circumstances

Question 8

Elections- Beveridge Report

Answer 8

The next election would be fought on the basis of this report

Question 9

New Jerusalem- Labour’s Welfare Policies

Answer 9

Labour promised to build a ‘New Jerusalem’: a prosperous and egalitarian country

Question 10

Labour Manifesto- Labour’s Welfare Policies

Answer 10

‘Let us face the future’ promised it would care for citizens from the cradle to the grave

Question 11

Welfare Policies- Labour’s Welfare Policies

Answer 11

The Family Allowances Act, 1945
The National Insurance Act, 1946
The Industrial Injuries Act, 1946
The National Assistance Act, 1948
Creation of NHS 1948

Question 12

Benefits- Family Allowances Act, 1945

Answer 12

Created monetary child benefits for the first time
From August 1946, allowance of 5 shillings for each child

Question 13

Mother- Family Allowances Act, 1945

Answer 13

They were paid to the mother rather than the father

Non-working mothers gained an income independent from their husband → improvement in status

Question 14

National insurance contributions- National Insurance Act, 1946

Answer 14

All workers now contributed a national insurance charge from their wages

Question 15

Benefits- National Insurance Act, 1946

Answer 15

This meant unemployment benefits and sickness benefits were available to all workers.

A state pension would be paid to all men over 65 and women over 60. Weekly rate of £1.30 for single people and £2.30 for married couples.

Question 16

Flaw- National Insurance Act, 1946

Answer 16

British people all paid the same amount into the scheme. Poor people had to pay a much larger percentage of their income

Question 17

Compensation- Industrial Injuries Act, 1946

Answer 17

Gave workers the right to be compensated by the Ministry of National Insurance for accidents and injuries in the workplace.

Question 18

Accidents- Industrial Injuries Act, 1946

Answer 18

Average of 2,425 people killed each year at work in 1940s

Coal mining accounted for ¼ of all workplace deaths and injuries.

Question 19

Benefits- National Assistance Act, 1948

Answer 19

Offered welfare benefits to those who were not covered by National Insurance (those who didn’t work)

Question 20

Who- National Assistance Act, 1948

Answer 20

The homeless, the disabled, unmarried mothers & pensioners in poverty could claim.

Question 21

Change- National Assistance Act, 1948

Answer 21

Abolished the Public Assistance Committees that investigated people’s right to benefits in the 1930s.

Replaced with centralised National Assistance Board

Question 22

Creation- NHS, 1948

Answer 22

National Health Service was created by Minister of Health, Aneurin Bevan in 1948

Question 23

Context- NHS, 1948

Answer 23

The National Health Service Act 1946 set out the blueprint

Question 24

Change- NHS, 1948

Answer 24

Offered free and comprehensive health cover for everyone, funded by a compulsory taxation scheme taken from wages

Question 25

Consensus- Welfare Consensus

Answer 25

Commitment from all major parties to support the Welfare State

Question 26

Middle Way- Welfare Consensus

Answer 26

Macmillan supported a ‘middle way’: some aspects of government intervention to end social deprivation combined with maintaining private enterprise (capitalism)

Question 27

Dissent- Welfare Consensus

Answer 27

Enoch Powell resigned in 1950s in protest over welfare spending

By 1970s, conservatives reconsidering high costs of welfare spending - it hadn’t solved the issue of poverty
→1965: Child Poverty Action Group claimed 720,000 children were living in poverty