🔵| Liberal Reforms Essay Flashcards
Paragraphs
4
- Young
- Old
- Sick
- Working/Unemployed
Introduction
- BG: During the late 1800s and early 1900s Britain was facing social problems caused by extreme poverty. Many working-class people could not afford necessities such as food, clean water or shelter, causing their health and lifespans to decrease.
- BG: This was amplified due to the Governments Laissez Faire approach in which they believed poverty was the fault of the individual.
- Factors: Many Historians would argue that the Liberal Reforms did meet the needs of the people because they introduced a series of laws aimed to reduce poverty across various groups, namely the young, sick, elderly, and the working & unemployed. However, others would suggest that these reforms simply did not go far enough due to weaknesses and limitations within each act.
- LOA: In my opinion, the Liberal Reforms were revolutionary and indeed needed but overall did not fully meet the needs of the people.
Young:
KU 1
Firstly, the 1906 Provision of School Meals Act allowed local authorities to raise money via taxes to pay for one hot meal per day for school children.
Young:
Analysis 1
- It can be said that this act met the needs of the people because there was a new recognition that children needed better nutrition to ensure satisfactory development, and the Government were now intervening to ensure this was in place for the children facing poverty.
- An 1885 pamphlet stated that children could not learn whilst hungry or develop sufficiently without vitamins, which demonstrates this new attitude.
Young:
Analysis+ 1
- However, it can be said that this act did not fully meet the needs of the people because it was a postcode lottery.
- It was optional for authorities to raise this money to fund hot meals, and indeed 30 years later 50% of authorities had not done this which shows that the lack of force to properly implement meant that many impoverished children went without help.
Young:
KU 2
Secondly, the 1908 Children’s Charter was introduced to safeguard children. This act ensured that children were not living on the streets without food or education, and banned children under 16 from smoking, drinking alcohol and begging.
Young:
Analysis 2
It can be said that this act met the needs of the people because it established better safety standards for children, and even if they slipped through the net of these interventions by breaking the law children would still be protected via the creation of remand homes, separating them for adult criminals.
Young:
Analysis+ 2
However, it can be said that this act did not fully meet the needs of the people because these new laws and safeguarding measures were hard to enforce as the Government didn’t hire more inspectors and social workers to overcome this, and without enforcement the act would essentially be useless.
Young:
Evaluation
Overall, the Liberal Reforms did attempt to meet the needs of the young as these acts allowed progress to be made and for children to be recognised as the underserving poor which was an important shift from laissez-faire attitudes.
Young:
Evaluation+
- However, this was not enough to fully meet the needs of the young because although struggles were acknowledged the Liberals didn’t do enough to force solutions.
- This can be evidenced via the 1907 Medical Inspections Act, which diagnosed conditions of school children but did not allow for free treatment alongside this, showing how needs were acknowledged yet not met.
Old:
KU
2
- Firstly, the 1908 Old Age Pensions Act gave people over 70 with an annual income of less than £21 per a year a pension of five shillings per week.
- Also, a smaller amount was paid to those earning over £21 but under £31.50 per year.
Old:
Analysis
- It can be said that this act met the needs of the people because it was the first instance of isolated financial help for the elderly, allowing them the chance to rest instead of spending their remaining time in low-earning jobs with little to show for it.
- By 1914, one million elderly people were receiving a pension which demonstrates the great number of people benefitting from this act.
Old:
Analysis+
- However, it can be said that this act did not fully meet the needs of the people because to qualify for a pension certain specific criterion had to be met which made many ineligible.
- Some of the criteria included having to earn under £31.50 a year and being a British person who had lived in the UK for 20 years.
Old:
Evaluation
Overall, the Liberal Reforms attempted to meet the needs of the elderly as despite the specific criteria a wide range of elderly people were still eligible for these pensions, meaning more could consider the prospect of retirement.
Old:
Evaluation+
- However, this was not enough to fully meet the needs of the elderly because the act was not tailored to fit into Britain’s current circumstances.
- Poverty was shortening people’s life-spans due to a lack of proper healthcare for the poor, meaning that many were dying before 70 which was the eligible age to receive a pension – this proves the needs of the elderly for that time were not met.
Sick:
KU
2
- Firstly, the National Insurance Act Part 1, 1911 provided compulsory health insurance for workers earning under £160 a year.
- Also, this scheme was contributory – the employee paid 4d, the employer paid 3d and the state paid 2d to provide a sickness benefit of 9 shillings.
Sick:
Analysis
- It can be said that this act met the needs of the people because ill workers were now entitled to sick pay, ensuring they wouldn’t have to work when unsafe for them to do so just to feed themselves and their families.
- Employees were paid 9 shillings for up to 13 weeks of sick leave, and then 5 shillings for an additional 13 weeks.
Sick:
Analysis+
- However, it can be said that this act did not fully meet the needs of the people because if an employee required sick leave longer than 26 weeks, they would lose their pay under the scheme.
- After 26 weeks, the Poor Law had to provide for their workers, which demonstrates that needs may have been met initially but were not met to a consistent standard in the long-term.
Sick:
Evaluation
Overall, the Liberal Reforms attempted to meet the needs of the sick as employees were not only given sick pay to compensate their illness but offered free medical treatment to cure their illness which allowed them to both rest and recover without worrying about their dire financial circumstances.
Sick:
Evaluation+
- However, the Liberal Reforms didn’t fully meet the needs of the sick because this help was provided to niche circumstances.
- It is true that employees benefitted from this, but this help did not extend to their families which would still cause financial strain if family members were to become ill.
Working/Unemployed:
KU 1
For the unemployed, the National Insurance Act Part 2, 1911 was introduced. After one week, an insured worker losing their job would receive 7 shillings a week for a period of 25 weeks.
Working/Unemployed:
Analysis 1
It can be said that this act met the needs of the people because many trades, such as shipbuilding, were involved in the scheme and within such trades it was compulsory which ensured help was being given to the Government’s standard.
Working/Unemployed:
Analysis+ 1
However, it can be said that this act did not fully meet the needs of the people because although a lot of trades were involved, the scheme was limited to such trades so if someone were to become unemployed from an unaffiliated trade they wouldn’t receive payment and would therefore be plummeted into poverty until they could find a new job.
Working/Unemployed:
KU 2
To help the working people, the 1909 Trade Boards Act was introduced. This act set up boards to negotiate minimum wage in box-making, lace-making, chain-making and tailoring trades.
Working/Unemployed:
Analysis 2
It can be said that this act met the needs of the people because many workers, 200,000 to be specific, were able to benefit from this negotiation which demonstrates how this was a necessary change introduced by the Liberals.
Working/Unemployed:
Analysis+ 2
- However, it can be said that this act did not fully meet the needs of the people because although the boards were negotiating minimum wage, there was no attempt to define a minimum wage.
- This meant that boards could potentially negotiate unsatisfactory minimum wages, exposing workers to poor working conditions and therefore poverty more than they helped them.
Working/Unemployed:
Evaluation
Overall, the Liberal Reforms attempted to meet the needs of the unemployed and working people of Britain as evidently more was being done as a whole to protect both groups financially, which was important in the circumstances of poverty as these groups would be severely impacted without the opportunity to gain sufficient earnings.
Working/Unemployed:
Evaluation+
- However, this was not enough to fully meet the needs of the working and unemployed because acts introduced didn’t include enough intervention to ensure worthy help was being given to the majority.
- For example, the 1909 Labour Exchanges Act set up offices to help the unemployed find work, but it was not compulsory for employers to register vacancies here which was a minimal attempt to meet needs but a lack of provision to make sure this happened.
Conclusion
LOA, Argue Other Side, Argue LOA
- Overall, the Liberal reforms were not effective in meeting the needs of the people because there were prominent weaknesses and limitations within each of the introduced acts which impacted their success in helping the targeted groups through poverty.
- Some would argue that the Liberal Reforms were indeed successful in meeting the needs of the people because of their more modern approach to poverty, which showed a shift from laissez-faire attitudes. For example, more was being done to tackle the impact that poverty was having on children via intervention in schools like authority-funded hot meals, and elderly people were given the opportunity to retire via pensions instead of having to struggle through working in poor conditions in their older age.
- However, others would still argue that the Liberal Reforms were not successful in meeting the needs of the people because although these contributions were made, they didn’t go far enough to ensure needs were properly met for the majority. It was not mandatory for authorities to raise funds for school children’s hot meals, and many elderly people were dying before meeting the age requirement for pensions due to poor healthcare in Britain. Therefore, I have shown that the Liberal Reforms were not effective in meeting the needs of the people.
