Liberal Reforms, 19061914

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Liberal Reforms, 1906-1914
Mr Richard Fitzsimmons

• History Department
• Strathallan School

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Liberal Reforms, 1906-14

• In the following lessons we will study
• Attitudes to poverty in early 20th C Britain
• What it was like to be poor
• About Charles Booth and Seebohm Rowntree
• Why attitudes to poverty began to change
• The Acts passed by the Liberal Government
• How effective the acts were

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Attitudes to poverty ca. 1900

• Most Victorians believed that the poor were
  responsible for their own poverty
• Slowly, but surely, people began to realise that
  poverty was due to social and economic factors
  outside their control
• The poor had a deep-seated fear of the workhouse,
  and stigma was attached to accepting any help
  from the Poor Laws
• Many poor people believed that it was admitting
  defeat to accept charity

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What was it like to be poor ?

• People were expected to save money against future
  hard times, but few could afford to do this so,
  sickness and unemployment were especially feared
• Many people retired as late as possible, as the
  old faced a miserable existence if they had no
  relatives to look after them
• There were many charities devoted to the elderly
  and destitute, or specifically with children
  (1000s up and down the country, e.g. Dr
  Barnardos, Salvation Army)

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Rowntree and Booth

• Born into the chocolate makers Rowntree, a Quaker
  family
• Interested in Booths findings and wondered if
  they would be confirmed in York
• He investigated and found about 28 people in
  York living below the poverty line
• Divided poverty into two categories Primary
  poverty, Secondary poverty
• Wrote a book Poverty a study of Town Life

• Born into a wealthy ship-owning family
• 1886-1903 he investigated living conditions,
  income and spending of 4000 people in London
• Found over 30 of Londoners were living below the
  poverty line
• Divided poor into 4 groups
• Worked out that poverty was caused by problems
  related to unemployment and low wages, not due to
  the poor themselves

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Why did poverty become a political issue ?

• Through reports such as those of Rowntree and
  Booth
• The rejection of ²/³ of recruits for the army as
  they failed the army medical also led to
  concerns for the fitness of Britains workforce,
  and fears that they would lag behind the rest of
  Britains competitors
• 1900 the socialist parties joined to form the
  Labour Party which said it would campaign for
  better working and living conditions for the
  working people the Liberals were worried that
  they might lose votes and members to this new
  party if they did not do something about poverty
  and hardship

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Acts dealing with children

• There were a number of Acts passed that were
  designed to improve the lot of children in the
  early 20th Century
• Free Schools Meals (1906)
• School Medical Inspections (1907)
• Education Act (1907)
• Childrens Act (1908) sometimes called the
• Childrens Charter
• 5. School Clinics (1912)

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Free School Meals (1906)

• Local councils were given powers to give free
  meals to children from poor families
• These meals were to be paid for from the local
  rates (local taxes on property)
• By 1914, over 150,000 children were having a
  daily free meal, every day.
• However, less than half the education authorities
  in England and Wales provided the free meals
• In 1914, the Government made it compulsory for
  authorities to provide these meals

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School Medical Inspections (1907)

• Doctors and nurses went into schools to provide
  free compulsory medical checks for children
• They could recommend any treatment that was
  necessary
• Any treatment required by the children had to be
  paid for by the parents (until 1912)

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Education Act (1907)

• Introduced scholarships for children from poor
  families
• Secondary Schools that received money from local
  government were to reserve 25 for children from
  Elementary Schools
• Children were chosen for scholarships through an
  examination

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Childrens Act (1908)

• Children were now protected, by law, against
  cruelty from their parents
• Poor law authorities were responsible for
  visiting and supervising children who had
  suffered cruelty or neglect
• Childrens homes to be registered and inspected
• Children under 14 who committed crimes were now
  not to be sent to adult prisons

• Special juvenile courts to be set up to try
  children accused of crimes
• Criminal children were to be sent to borstals,
  specially built to cope with young offenders
• Children under 14 not to be allowed into pubs
• Cigarettes or alcohol not to be sold to children
  under 16

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The Pensions Act (1908)

• Weekly pensions were provided by the Government
  for the elderly
• 5s per week to single people over 70, 7s 6d to
  married couples
• Full amounts were only paid to those who earned
  less than 21 per year
• A sliding-scale of payments for those earning
  between 31 and 21 p.a.
• For British citizens who had lived there for 20
  yrs
• Not for anyone who had been in prison during the
  10 years before claiming their pension
• The first pensions were paid in January 1909 and
  were very popular among the pensioners.

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Labour Exchanges Act (1909)

• Set up a national string of state labour
  exchanges
• Meant that the unemployed could go to an exchange
  to look for a job
• Much more efficient for those seeking a job and
  those offering them
• By 1913 there were 430 exchanges in Britain

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National Insurance Act (1911)

• Set up an insurance scheme to prevent poverty
  arising from illness

• All manual workers and people in low-paid jobs
  had to join
• Workers paid 4d for insurance stamps which they
  stuck on a special card
• Employers gave 3d per worker in the scheme

• The Government gave 2d for each worker in the
  scheme
• If a worker in the scheme fell ill, they got sick
  pay of 10s per week for 13 weeks, then 5s per
  week for a further 13 week in the year
• Workers in the scheme could have free medical care

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National Insurance Act (1912)

• Although there were ca. 10 million men and 4
  million women covered by the national insurance
  scheme, a second act was necessary to deal with
  workers who found themselves periodically out of
  work

• Scheme open to those in industries where there
  was seasonal employment (e.g. shipbuilding,
  engineering)
• Workers, employers and Government all paid 2d per
  week for insurance stamps

• When unemployed, workers could be paid 7s 6d a
  week for up to 15 weeks in any one year.

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How effective were the Acts ?
The Liberal Party had made a start in dealing
with the causes of poverty, and made some headway
in changing attitudes, but this was not enough

• Only about ½ million old people qualified for old
  age pensions
• National insurance covered about 14 million
  people, but only applied to those on low incomes
  or those who made contributions not their
  families
• Insurance against unemployment only applied to
  those in seasonal labour
• Many of the reforms were to be put into action by
  the local authorities, but change was slow in
  some areas of the country
• Remember Britains population was around 45
  million

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Tackling poverty unemployment
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TASK
Using information from your books and this
presentation, you are going to explore how
successfully the Liberal Government tackled
poverty in the years before 1914

• 1. Draw up a 3 column grid with 3 headings
• Act of Parliament
• Who did it help ?
• Who was excluded ?
• 2. Note down in the first column the Acts of
  Parliament that were designed to attack poverty.
  Then use the information in your books to fill in
  the other two columns.
• 3. Write a paragraph to answer the question How
  successfully did the Liberal Government attack
  poverty ?