Liberal Reforms Flashcards
Strengths, the education act 1906
Enabled hungry children to concentrate more and so learn more affectively. By 1914, a total of 14 million free school meals a year were being provided by LEAs
Limitations, the education act 1906
Permissive, not compulsory. Not all LEAs use this power before 1914. Even in 1913 only about half of the LEAs were providing free meals
Strengths, education act 1907
By 1914, 3/4 of LEAs were providing free medical inspections and 2/3 some form of free medical treatment
Limitations, the education act 1907
Provided only a very cursory check and not always treatment. Poor not always able to afford to treat the conditions revealed by the inspection
Strengths, children’s act and other protective legislation 1908
State tried to ensure minimum standards of care and protection for children. Differentiating in its treatment of child and adult offenders
Limitations, children’s act and other protective legislation in 1908
Some new legislation but also a lot of codifiying of existing law
Strengths, old age pensions act 1908
Scheme was non-contributory being paid out of general taxation not by contributions from the recipients. Provided a regular weekly sum as of right to those who qualified. Paid by the state through local post office is not through poor law. This enabled those too ashamed of being classed as a pauper to get help. There were about 1 million pensioners by 1915 with more women than men qualifying
Limitations of the old age pensions act 1908
Only paid to those over 70 on a very low income.
Pension was based on a sliding scale according to income so only the poorest got the full amount.
Pensioners had to have worked regularly, ‘been of good character’
Pension paid was bare minimum for survival
What did Trade Boards in 1909 do?
Set up to fix minimum wages and inspect condition in certain trades.
Initially covered 200,000, mostly women workers in four trades e.g tailoring and lace making, where the hours were long and wages low and no trade union to protect them.
By 1913 this had extended to 6 trades and to coal miners too.
Limitations of the trade Boards 1909
Only covered ‘sweated trades’ meaning many other low-paid workers were left out.
To few inspectors to enforce rigorously
No national minimum wage until 1999.
What did the Labour Exchanges do?
Set up place where workers and employers could meet. 2 million workers had registered by 1914 and the 430 exchanges were finding 3,000 jobs a day
Limitations of the Labour exchanges
For every worker who found a job, three did not.
Not creating new jobs for the unemployed but helping existing job market operate more smoothly
National Insurance Unemployment Act
State encouraged workers and their employers to contribute weekly to a national insurance fund. State topped this up out of taxation. The fund enabled workers to receive a weekly benefit if unemployed
Covered 2.25 million workers and provided a 7 shillings a week benefit for up to 15 weeks.
National Insurance Unemployment Act Limitations
Only applied to certain trades, ‘insured trades’.
These were the trades known for regular, seasonal ir cyclical unemployment
e.g.building and shipbuilding trades
Most workers not covered by the scheme
Did not become operational until 1912
National Insurance Sickness Act
Compulsory scheme by which workers and their employers had to pay weekly into a national fund. State topped this up out of general taxation.
Covered around 13 million workers.
Weekly sickness benefit of 10 shillings a week for 13 weeks and then 5 shillings a week for a further 13 weeks.
Maternity grant for women workers
Disability benefit
free medical treatment with an approved doctor
