Theme 2 a 1 - Social Welfare provision, 1918-39 Flashcards

Question 1

Q

In 1918, what war government provision for the poor based on?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>The Victorian Poor Laws.</li> <li>Liberal welfare reforms of the early twentieth century.</li></ul>

Question 2

Q

Welfare provisions-1918

When did many of the welfare institutions of the Victorian Poor Laws remain in place till?

What did poor law guardians do?

Answer

A

1930

They levied (imposed) a poor rate on local landowners or businesses, to support the system of workhouses!

Question 3

Q

What did the pre- Liberal government introduce in 1911?

What did this include?

Answer

A

Unemployment insurance.

Provided them with 7 shillings per week unemployment benefits up to 15 weeks a year.

Question 4

Q

How much did the unemployment insurance1911 give people per week?

How many weeks a year?

Answer

A

7 shillings a week.

Up to 15 weeks in a year.

Question 5

Q

Unemployment insurance- 1911.

Was the payment high/ low?

Explain why?

Answer

A

Relatively low payment.

Average wages were 20 shillings per week.

Question 6

Q

Were women workers included in the 1911 unemployment insurance ?

What were women covered for other things?

Answer

A

Yes!

Women covered by the scheme, including the wives of working men, were entitled to a maternity allowance.

Question 7

Q

Unemployment insurance- 1911

How much of Britains total working malepopulation did it cover?

Answer

A

Only around 10%

Question 8

Q

Unemployment insurance- 1911

Where did money have to be collected from and why?

Answer

A

Labour exchanges, also set up by the Liberal Government, to ensure that men looked for work while they claimed!

Question 9

Q

Until 1914- what had most welfare been administered by?

What did this reflect?

How did this change in the early part of the twentieth century?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>A patchwork of local, voluntary and charitable organisations.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Reflected the Victorian view that private charity was the best way of helping the poor.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Early 20th century- more widely accepted that the state had a much bigger part to play in poor relief. This view was influential in the development of welfare in the interwar period!</li></ul>

Question 10

Q

When was the Unemployment Insurance Act introduced?

Answer

A

1920

Question 11

Q

Unemployment Insurance Act 1920

How did it extend social welfare?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>National insurance was extended from the 4 million workers covered in 1919 to 11.4 million in 1921.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Benefits - increased to 75p (unemployed men) and 60p-unemployed women.</li> <li>Payments-still low compared to average earnings. Low paid workers such as bus drivers earned about £3 a week!</li></ul>

Question 12

Q

In 1911- what did Lloyd George assume about insurance?

However what did the 1920 act do?

What did the act create?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>He assumed the insurance would be self-financing as payments were based on contributions from employers and employees.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>It covered millions of non-contributors who had been affected by mass unemployment.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Act created a state funded "dole" which was available to the unemployed without a "means test"</li></ul>

Question 13

Q

What was the extension of state funding justified by?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>The need to support the unprecedently high levels of unemployment.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Fears that extreme and widespread poverty might lead to a revolution as it had done in Russia in 1917.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>The popular desire to support soldiers who had fought and risked their lives for Britain in WW1.</li></ul>

Question 14

Q

Why did the size of the welfare budget become controversial in the early 1930s?

What happened, what was proposed, what was the response.....?

Answer

A

The state of the British Economy!

<ul> <li>The Chancellor, Philip Snowden, proposed a 10% cut in unemployment benefit!</li> <li>Arthur Henderson, the foreign secretary, led a cabinet revolt against the proposals which brought the government down.</li> <li>As a result- Labour leader Ramsey MacDonald was forced to form a National Government with the Conservative party.</li></ul>

Question 15

Q

When was "The National Economy Act"?

Answer

A

1931

Question 16

Q

What did the National Economy Act, 1931 introduce?

What was the result?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>A means test for unemployment benefits in order to limit the overall benefits bill.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Result- a policy that was detested in the most deprived parts of the country and that exacerbated hardship for many of the most vulnerable!</li></ul>

Question 17

Q

What was included in the means test for "The National Economy Act, 1931" ?

Who did this affect?

Answer

A

It disqualified "short-time" workers.

Dramatically affected men who worked occasional days in collieries or shipyards but were dependent on welfare payments the rest of the time!

Question 18

Q

The National Economy Act, 1931

Where was there the biggest impact in the country due to there being a means test?

Answer

A

In the most deprived parts of the country such as Tyneside and south Wales- where most workers worked reduced hours!

Question 19

Q

The National Economy Act, 1931

What did the disqualification from benefits mean that?

What did this create?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Unemployment made more economic sense than work!</li></ul>

<ul> <li>This created a sort of poverty trap in which if someone went to work benefits would stop and they would be worse off!</li></ul>

Question 20

Q

The National Economy Act, 1931

How long could the benefits be claimed for?

What did people have to do after this?

Answer

A

6 months.

They had to reapply!

Question 21

Q

What payments did "The National Economy Act, 1931" introduce and what were they designed to do?

What did you have to do to get these payments?

Answer

A

"transitional payments"

<ul> <li>Designed to support unemployed people after the first 6 months.</li> <li>Claiments-required to register at a local labour exchange. The payments could be authorised by the local "Public Assistance Committee", which would investigate the claimant's circumstances to make sure they were not trying to abuse the system.</li></ul>

Question 22

Q

The National Economy Act, 1931

What forms of household income were taken into account and what did it require recipients of relief to have done?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>All forms of household income were taken into account when assessing what rate of relief a claimant was entitled to.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Required recipients to have exhausted all savings and to have sold all valuables before they gained a meagre weekly amount to survive on.</li></ul>

Question 23

Q

Why was the means test for

The National Economy Act, 1931 so widely hated- how did it affect families?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Many low-income families relied on the incomes of all adults in the family to survive.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Now, unemployed parents with working children would lose benefits if their children lived with them- even though their childrens wages would not provide for the needs of the whole family.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Therefore this measure forced some children of working age to leave the family home.</li></ul>

Question 24

Q

The Unemployment Act, 1934

What did this act build on from?

Answer

A

The changes introduced in 1931, continuing the distinction between short-term and long-term unemployment.

Question 25

Q

The Unemployment Act, 1934

What did the act reverse and what did it do?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Reversed the 10% cut in benefit for the short-term unemployed, restoring benefits to their 1930 level for the first 6 months.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>After 6 months, the long-term unemployed could apply to the newly created Unemployment Assistance Board for further benefits.</li></ul>

Question 26

Q

The Unemployment Act, 1934

Did it include means testing?

Answer

A

Means testing of the long-term unemployed continued but payments were made at a slower rate than those provided between 1931-1934.

Question 27

Q

The Unemployment Act, 1934

What did the cut in long-term benefits lead to, give examples?

Answer

A

Large public protests!

E.g. 300,000 people demonstrated against the cuts in south Wales alone!

Question 28

Q

The Unemployment Act, 1934

How many people demonstrated against the cuts in south Wales alone?

Answer

A

300,000 people!

Question 29

Q

The Unemployment Act, 1934

What did the government introduce in January 1935 due to the protests?

What does this indicate?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Introduced "standstill regulations" which suspended the cut!</li></ul>

<ul> <li>The "standstill" indicated the extent to which popular pressure protected welfare provision in the 1930s!</li></ul>

Question 30

Q

By 1939 what had passed?

What happened to unemployment?

Answer

A

The worst of the Depression had passed!

Unemployment had dropped sharply!

<ul> <li>It fell from 3 million (1933) which is 20% of the adult working population.</li></ul>

TO

<ul> <li>Just under 1.4 million in 1939 (9% of the adult working population)</li></ul>

Question 31

Q

What was unemployment like in 1933?

Answer

A

3 million- 20% of the adult working population!

Question 32

Q

What was unemployment like in 1939?

Answer

A

1.4 million, 9% of the adult working population!

Question 33

Q

What year was unemployment at 3 million?

Answer

A

1933

Question 34

Q

What year was unemployment at just under 1.4 million??

Answer

A

1939

Question 35

Q

What did all political parties agree about the state in the 1930s?

Answer

A

They accepted that the state had a significant role to play in providing unemployment benefit!

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Theme 2 a 1 - Social Welfare provision, 1918-39 Flashcards

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