TO WHAT EXTENT WERE THE LIBERAL GOVERNMENT REFORMS, 1906-14, EFFECTIVE IN RELIEVING POVERTY?

Question 1

When was the Liberal government elected and what did they set about doing?

Answer 1

• 1906- building new institutions that were completely separate from the Poor Law system.

Question 2

What 2 main groups did the Liberal governments reforms fall into?

Answer 2

• early legislation- concerned children and the elderly (arisen from years of discussions).
• later legislation- concerned sickness and unemployment (took the government into new uncharted territory).

Question 3

When did the idea of providing old age pensions fist emerge? Who by?

Answer 3

• 1870s.
• Canon William Blackley- wrote an article in the 1878 edition of the journal The Nineteenth Century, proposing a compulsory pension scheme and criticising friendly societies for not providing for a wider group than the prosperous working class.

Question 4

Who developed the idea of old age pensions in the 1890s?

Answer 4

• Charles Booth- urged a non-contributory pension scheme funded by taxation.

Question 5

What did the 1895 Royal Commission on the Aged Poor conclude on the current system in place for the elderly poor?

Answer 5

• no fundamental alterations were needed to the existing system- distinctions should be made between the respectable poor who had tried to provide for their old age and the feckless poor who had become destitute due to their own lack of foresight.

Question 6

Who argued the case for contributory pension schemes? What were their arguments for this?

Answer 6

• the COS and those who favoured the idea of self-help.
• people would have no incentive to save for old age if they knew they could get a pension for nothing when they were old.
• the high cost of introducing a non-contributory pension scheme- estimated at £16million in the 1890s (more than what was spent on poor relief).

Question 7

What were the arguments of those who favoured non-contributory pension schemes? Who supported this argument and why?

Answer 7

• poorest members of society weren’t in a position to contribute to a pension sh me due to their minimal wages.
• friendly societies- thought a contributory scheme would hit them hard as people couldn’t afford to pay into them as well as a compulsory state one.

Question 8

When was the Old Age Pensions Act introduced?

Answer 8

• 1909.

Question 9

What were the terms to qualify for a pension in the 1909 Old Age Pensions Act?

Answer 9

• pensions were non-contributory and funded from taxes.
• pensions were paid to people over 70, to be paid through post offices.
• single person got 5s/week, married couples got 7s 6d/week (later raised to 10).
• full pensions paid to those earning less than 8s a week, incomes between 8s and 12s received reduced pensions on a sliding scale, those earning over 12s received no pension.
• needed to have been a British citizen resident in Britain for 20 years.
• pensions not paid to those who continually had failed to find work, been in prison the past 10 years, those who had claimed poor relief in the previous 2 years and drunkards.

Question 10

What was the number of people claiming pensions after the Act? What was this number roughly the same as?

Answer 10

• 600,000- about the same as the number of elderly claiming poor relief before the Act.

Question 11

How was the cost of relief to the elderly effected by the Old Age Pensions Act?

Answer 11

• cost roughly the same as previous elderly relief.

Question 12

What did the Old Age Pensions Act not help to reduce? Why?

Answer 12

• the number of elderly relieved in the workhouse- many elderly were too vulnerable and frail to care for themselves even if they had an income.

Question 13

How did the Old Age Pensions Act help change feelings towards poor relief? What fears did it rid the elderly of?

Answer 13

• the stigma of being in receipt of poor relief had gone.

* fear of the workhouse and the threat of impoverished old age had gone.

Question 14

What were pensions nicknamed by many people? Why?

Answer 14

• Lloyd Georges- elderly full of gratitude for the freedom of anxiety that the cabinet member (at this point chancellor of the exchequer) gave them.

Question 15

What was the 19th century attitude towards unemployment?

Answer 15

• was the workers fault- there was plenty of work available so only the feckless would fail to find it.
• for these people there was the relief of the workhouse.

Question 16

How had the attitude towards unemployment changed by the beginning of the 20th century?

Answer 16

• within a capitalist economy, there was bound to be periods of trade depression where people couldn’t find work.
• problem of underemployment recognised many people doing casual work competing with each other on almost a daily basis.

Question 17

What 2 main parts did the Liberal government break down the problem of unemployment into?

Answer 17

• finding work.

* insuring against the loss of work due to illness and unemployment.

Question 18

Who greatly influenced reforms for unemployment? What were there views?

Answer 18

• William Beveridge(involved in Charles Booths investigations and influenced greatly by the Webb’s).
• workers needed help to find work and support when it was not available, rather than being punished in the workhouse.

Question 19

When did the Labour Exchanges Act come in?

Answer 19

• 1909.

Question 20

What did the 1909 Labour Exchanges Act do?

Answer 20

• aimed to decasulise labour.

* set up a series of labour exchanges intended to help the unemployed find any work that was available.

Question 21

How many labour exchanges were opened in 1910 and what had this grown to by 1914?

Answer 21

• 83 labour exchanges opened in 1910, 450 labour exchanges by 1914.

Question 22

Why were some people doubtful of labour exchanges?

Answer 22

• they would provide an excuse for those unwilling to work as they were ‘still looking’.
• some workers feared they would be used to recruit blackleg labour during a strike.
• but ultimately they were a great success.

Question 23

What did the Webb’s want to do about labour exchanges?

Answer 23

• make them compulsory (only way to hire labour)- allowing the government to organise the labour market to benefit workers and the economy.
• unemployment insurance on a voluntary basis would then be all that was necessary.

Question 24

What did Churchill and Lloyd George want to do t about labour exchanges?

Answer 24

• make labour exchanges voluntary but unemployment insurance compulsory in certain trades- they wanted tackle the problem of destitution by relieving the unemployed rather than preventing unemployment.

Question 25

When was the Trade Boards Act?

Answer 25

• 1909.

Question 26

What did the 1909 Trade Boards Act do?

Answer 26

• provided for the creation of boards in sweated trades (eg: matchbox making, lace making and tailoring) which could negotiate for and set legally enforceable minimum wage criteria.

Question 27

How many workers were involved in the Trade Boards Act?

Answer 27

• 200,000.

Question 28

What was the problem with the Trade Boards Act?

Answer 28

• no attempt was made to define what was meant by a minimum wage.

Question 29

Despite the lack of an established minimum wage, what important principle did the Trade Boards Act set?

Answer 29

• wages were no longer arrived at by a private agreement between employer and employee.

Question 30

With illness of the main breadwinner being recognised as a cause of poverty, how many people were insured against sickness in the early 1900s?

Answer 30

• 6-7million people.

Question 31

Why was insurance against sickness in the early 1900s not doing enough?

Answer 31

• many poorer people struggled to keep up with payments- in times of financial stress insurance payments were usually the first to go.

Question 32

Who’s approach to a health protection scheme did Lloyd George follow?

Answer 32

• Germany’s- made the system nationwide.

Question 33

Why was the fact that Britain already had existing institutions proving forms of insurance threatening to the creation of the National Insurance Act?

Answer 33

• friendly societies, trade unions and commercial insurance companies had already developed safeguards against sickness- formed a powerful vested interest group that could have derailed Lloyd George’s plans.

Question 34

What did part 1 of the National Insurance Act deal with?

Answer 34

• supporting the poor when I’ll health struck the main breadwinner.

Question 35

What were the terms of the National Insurance Act part 1?

Answer 35

• applied to workers earning less than £160 a year and all manual workers aged 16-60.
• employees contributed 4s, employers 3d and the state 2d per week into the scheme.
• insured people received 10s per week for up to 13 weeks.
• payments made through approved societies.
• maternity care was provided- one off Benicia of 30s.
• free treatment given be a medical practitioner and all drugs abs medicine were free.

Question 36

How much money was set aside for the treatment of TB? Who was this available for?

Answer 36

• £1.5million- for contributors to the scheme (not including their families).

Question 37

Why was the National Insurance Act unpopular?

Answer 37

• workers resent paying 4s from their wages, viewing it as a wage cut.
• no guarantee workers would get ill and actually benefit from the scheme.
• payment was a flat rate- poorest workers hit the hardest.

Question 38

By 1913, how many workers has been insured against illness by the National Insurance Act?

Answer 38

• 13 million.

Question 39

What did part 2 of the National Insurance Act deal with?

Answer 39

• insurance against unemployment.

Question 40

What were the terms of the National Insurance Act part 2?

Answer 40

• employers, employees and the state contributed 2.5d to the scheme.
• workers could claim unemployment benefit of 7s per week for up to 15 weeks a year.
• no claim could be paid if unemployment resulted from a person being dismissed for misconduct.

Question 41

What sort of industries was the National Insurance Act fist applied to?

Answer 41

• industries probe to cyclical unemployment- eg: ship building abs vehicle construction.

Question 42

How many people were insured against unemployment in the National Insurance Act by the end of 1912?

Answer 42

• 2.25 million.

Question 43

Why was the success of the National Insurance Act hard to evaluate when it first came in?

Answer 43

• employment was high before the war broke out in 1914.

Question 44

What key idea did the Liberal reforms establish?

Answer 44

• relief of poverty was a national, not local, responsibility.