Social & Welfare Reforms Flashcards
Who was Charles Booth?
He was involved in the intellectual and socially aware circles in London. He reject the COS idea that poverty was the fault of the poor. He wouldn’t however blame capitalism because he was a wealthy businessman. He conducted an investigation into the poor. It lasted 17 years which meant the investigators were not consistent.
He separated the population into classes, he acknowledged their was some overlap.
Class A: 0.9% - lowest people - criminals, idlers. dregs of society
Class B: 7.5% - casual, low paid workers - lots of dockers. No security of employment, incapable of bettering themselves.
Class C: slightly better off but still had irregular work.
Class D: low income with regular work
Class E & F: about half - regular employment and comfortable lives.
Class G & H: 18% - lower and upper-middle classes.
The results were very detailed but the length of time it took meant it was inconsistent. Booth admitted it was only observational. He didn’t take income into account.
Helen Bosanquet of the COS attacked the statistics and that it underestimated the income of paupers.
Who was Seebohm Rowntree
A devout quaker which dominated his attitude to society and his workers.
He championed democracy in the workplace, minimum wage, family allowances and old age pensions.
He conducted three surveys into poverty in York.
He wanted to fin the numbers of people in poverty and the nature of the poverty.
His first survey was began in 1899 and was published in 1901. He used 1 full-time investigator who made house-to-house visits and relied on clergymen. Information was collected from 2/3 of the population.
He found around 28% were in obvious need. Using these peoples’ income he worked out a minimum wage necessary for a families physical efficiency.
He separated the poor into primary and secondary. Primary had no chance to make ends meet. Secondary were on the edge of poverty and couldn’t cope with emergencies.
Helen Bosquanet attacked the findings, she claimed he’d overestimated the level of poverty.
He understood the problems with the survey, it being only observational.
