THEME 4: a - Welfare Provision

Question 1

What did welfare look like c.1918?

Answer 1

Provision was based on:

• the Victorian Poor Laws
• liberal welfare reforms of early 20th C

Question 2

Outline what the Victorian Poor Laws were

Answer 2

• belief that the poor should get relief from charitable organisations
• welfare institutions of this law remained until 1930
• supported the system of workhouses
  (workhouses abolished 1930 but many stayed open as public assistance institutes)

Question 3

What reforms took place under Liberal gov?

Answer 3

• unemployment insurance (1911) –> 7 shillings a week for up to 15 weeks in a year (this was low payment as av. wage was 20 shillings a week
• women included in this scheme & entitled to maternity leave

Question 4

How did political views towards welfare change? 1900-18

Answer 4

• major shift in the political consensus about welfare provision
• pre-1914: most welfare from charity & local authorities
• post-1914: it became a widespread & accepted belief that the gov had a bigger part to play in relief for poor - influential in the development of welfare in the interwar years

Question 5

How did the gov. increase welfare provision in the early 1920s?

Answer 5

• Unemployment Insurance Act (1920)

* This extended social welfare

Question 6

What did the Unemployment Insurance Act 1920 do?

Answer 6

• covered a larger amount of workers (extended from 4 mil - 11.4 mil)
• increased benefits (75p - men, 60p - women)
• created a state funded ‘dole’ - NO MEANS TEST required

Question 7

Why did DLG increase state spending? (early 20s)

Answer 7

• fear of a communist revolution (Russia had theirs 1917)
• the need to support high levels of unemployment
• popular desire to support soldiers from WW1

Question 8

How did attitudes towards welfare change in the 1930s?

Answer 8

• the size of the welfare budget became controversial
• MacD’s Chancellor proposed a 10% cut in unemployment benefit
• a cabinet revolt against this proposition, led by the foreign secretary, caused MacD to form a NATIONAL GOV w/ tories

Question 9

What did the National Economy Act 1931 do?

Answer 9

intro a MEANS TEST for unemployment benefits

• it disqualified ‘short-time workers’
• created a poverty trap for many

benefits could only be claimed for 6 MONTHS - then you would have to reapply

Intro ‘transitional payments’ - payments would be authorised by the local Public Assistance Committee

Question 10

What was the social impact of the National Economy Act 1931?

Answer 10

• people detested the gov & they became v unpopular

* so much, people protested/marched from the poorest parts of the country to London

Question 11

What did the Unemployment Act, 1934 do?

Answer 11

• built on changes intro in 1931 - continued distinction between long-term & short-term unemployment
• reversed the 10% cut in benefits for short-term unemployed people - restored payments to 1030 level
• After 6 months, the long-term unemployed could apply to the Unemployment Assistance Board for further benefits
• long-term unemployed still means-tested

Question 12

What was the social impact of the Unemployment Act 1934?

Answer 12

• people were not happy with the cuts in long-term benefit, 300,000 people demonstrated against cuts in South Wales alone.
• So, the Gov intro ‘standstill regulations’ - suspended the cuts