Chapter 11 Welfare

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Chapter 11 Welfare

• Xiao Huiyun
• November, 2007

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A1 Development of Welfare State

• 1. Definition of Poverty
• 1.1 Absolute Poverty families without minimum
  food, clothing and shelter needed for maintenance
  of merely physical health (concept at beginning
  of last century)
• 1.2 Relative Poverty Despite adequate income
  for survival, people who do not have what is
  regarded as minimum necessary for decency and who
  cannot escape judgement that they are indecent
  can be labeled as poor.

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A 1 Development of Welfare State

• 2. How Much Poverty is there in UK?
• 2.1 Distribution of real household disposable
  income. chart (a) p 181
• Gap between the rich and the poor is bigger.
• The rich get richer, the poor poorer
• Increase in average incomes of the employed is
  much grater than that for the unemployed

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What image does this convey?

• United Kingdom (pound per week)

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Poverty in Britain

• (b) Proportion of adults lacking selected basic
  necessities1 through inability to afford them,
  1999 (p181)
• (d) People in poverty in the UK, by personal,
  economic and family status, 1996-97
  (p182)

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Poverty in Britain

• By the end of 1999 a quarter (26) of the British
  population were living in poverty, measured in
  terms of low income and multiple deprivation of
  necessities.
•   Roughly 9.5 million people in Britain today
  cannot afford adequate housing conditions.
• About 8 million cannot afford one or more
  essential household goods

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Poverty in Britain

• Almost 7.5 million people are too poor to engage
  in common social activities considered necessary
  by the majority of the population.
• About 6.5 million adults go without essential
  clothing
• Around 4 million are not properly fed by today's
  standards

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Poverty in Britain

• One in six people (17) considered themselves and
  their families to be living in 'absolute poverty'
  as defined by the United Nations.
• Less than 10 of the population sees a
  dishwasher, a mobile phone, Internet access or
  satellite television as necessities. 
• This study was undertaken by researchers at the
  Universities of Bristol, Loughborough, York and
  Heriot-Watt with fieldwork undertaken by the
  Office for National Statistics (ONS).

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What is a Welfare State?

• It can be defined as a state with a government
  which assumes responsibility for the well-being
  of its citizens throughout life, through a range
  of interventions in the market economy. The
  welfare state would aim to offer its citizens
• a life with certain specified standards of living
  which it considers reasonable and possible for
  all, and
• protection against the unexpected hazards of life
  (for example, losing a job, becoming sick, having
  an accident).
• These days resources for welfare are raised
  through National Insurance? contributions (which
  are paid by all people in work) and general
  taxation (which is paid by all people in work
  above a certain level of income). There is also a
  Value Added Tax (VAT) which is included in the
  price of many goods and services.

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Brief History of Welfare State in Britain

• Help serviced by parishes ,early 17th cent.
• Poor Law of 1834 discouraged people from applying
  for relief, the unemployed made stay in
  workhouses Oliver Twist, 1837
• Major Reform in 1908 -- National insurance
  schemes founded, enabling some people to cover
  medical retirement cost.
• Foundations of what came to be known as the
  Welfare State

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Workhouses

• Workhouse, Winchester

• Workhouse, Andover

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The Poor Law in 1834

• OLIVER TWIST

• Charles Dickens

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Dickens Centre, Rochester

• Summer House

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Portsmouth Museum

• House he bought at his home town

• Library

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Aims of the post-World War II welfare legislation

• Lord William Henry Beveridge, 1879-1963

• The most radical and widespread reforms occurred
  after the Second World War in 1945. The measures
  introduced then were based upon a famous
  document, the Beveridge Report? of 1942. The
  main aims of the legislation which followed the
  Report were

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Main Aims of Legislation after the Beveridge
Report

• to create a system where housing, health services
  and social security (payments for unemployment,
  old age, sickness, disability, children) would be
  provided for all, as an egalitarian safety-net?
  below which nobody would be able to fall
• to establish a National Health Service (1947) for
  all to receive free diagnosis, treatment and
  hospitalisation when necessary.

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A 2 CHANGING ATTITUDES

• Margaret Thatcher The main most
  radical criticisms were that it is too expensive
  and that too much state support weakens
  individual initiative and enterprise (p 184)
• The Reform by Thatcherism

• I came to office with one deliberate intent to
  change Britain from a dependent to a self-reliant
  society from a give-it-to-me to a do-it-yourself
  nation a get-up-and-go instead of a
  sit-back-and-wait Britain. (
  Margaret Thatcher, February1984)

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Reforms in Post-war Universal Welfare Provision

• The National Health Service has consistently been
  regarded with pride by the majority of British
  people
• Any political party which seemed to be
  threatening this institution would therefore be
  regarded with great suspicion
• Any restructuring of the system of old age
  pensions would prove to be very difficult.

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- Reforms in Post-war Universal Welfare
Provision- 1979

• Individual responsibility private provision of
  pension and medical costs encouraged.
• Collective responsibility benefit system
  tightened up. Reorganization of NHS.

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Reforms in Post-war Universal Welfare Provision-
1980s

• What would a radically reformed welfare state
  the social investment state in the positive
  welfare society look like? 1. Government
  working together with other agencies
• 2. No rights without responsibilities
• 3. Positive welfare

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Reforms in Post-war Universal Welfare Provision

• During the 1980s and 90s there was a general
  shift in public opinion towards a more positive
  view of public spending in order to maintain the
  quality of public services
• In 1997 Tony Blair promised to combine an open,
  competitive and successful economy with a just,
  decent and humane society.
• This eventually contributed to the General
  Election victory of the Labour Party in 1997.

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A3 WELFARE IN BRITAIN THE PRESENT

• The three main areas of welfare provision in
  Britain are health, housing and social security
• The post-war welfare structure has always been a
  combination of public and private provision
• From the 1980s those who could afford to have
  been encouraged to provide for their own health
  and retirement by paying into private insurance
  schemes.

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Welfare at Present

• Despite these changes, there are still a wide
  range of state benefits available to those in
  need.
• (a) Social Security
• For those who become unemployed, sick, or who are
  working on a low wage with a family to support,
  they may claim either job seekers allowance,
  income support or working families tax credit.
  DSS processes these claims

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Welfare, Present

• Other benefits available include
• the Social Fund which is used to make one-off
  payments in emergencies or for special necessary
  purchases
• sickness benefit
• widows pension and widowed mothers allowance
• disablement allowance if you are badly disabled

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Health

• (b) Health
• The National Health Service
• Although since the 1980s some changes have been
  made in management, the principle of
  comprehensive and free medical treatment for all,
  based upon need rather than the ability to pay,
  is still the central philosophy of the service.

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Housing

• (c) Housing
• 82 of households in Britain live in houses
  rather than flats. This compares with 60 in
  France and 35 in Italy. Housing in Britain is
  either privately owned or provided by funds from
  the government as the public sector. The
  government controls the proportion of private and
  public housing provision in a number of ways
  through its housing policy

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Housing

• Public Sector Housing Past Present
• Part of the philosophy behind the Beveridge
  Report was that
• the State should be responsible for the provision
  of adequate housing
• nobody need be housed in squalor
• minimal standards of housing should be set
• Local government authorities were to be given
  responsibility in ensuring that an adequate
  housing stock was available in their authority
  and in maintaining the standards set by
  government

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Housing

• 1950s and 1960s Post War slum clearance
• The 1980s Sale of Council Houses
• Many people disagreed with this policy
• Local Council Responsibilities
• The local council still has a number of
  responsibilities to provide adequate housing and
  meet special housing needs in its area, usually
  through the local Social Services Department

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Housing

• Private Sector Housing
• Housing Benefits
• Help with housing costs has always been part of
  the provision of the Welfare State, either for
  people on low incomes or for people unexpectedly
  or temporarily out of work through illness or
  unemployment. This benefit is administered by
  local government

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Housing

• The 1961 three-bedroomed semi-detached house
  depicted above is typical of those now standing
  on the Clober estate. It has white-painted
  roughcast walls and a tiled roof.

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Semi-detached House
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Semi-detached Houses
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Detach House
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Detached House
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Council Houses
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Council Houses
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Flats

• London Flat
• 1930s

• Lawn Road Flats
• 1933-1934

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Housing Crisis in Britain

• England faces a housing crisis within the next 20
  years, with a potential shortage of more than one
  million homes leading to overcrowding and rising
  levels of homelessness, a leading social research
  charity claimed today
• 60,000 homeless households in temporary
  accommodation .
• Housing shortages are set to become one of the
  most significant social issues of the next 20
  years. Simon Parker , March 19, 2002

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Monday 29 September, 2003 Speech by Deputy
Prime Minister John Prescott

• Under the Tories, half a million homes were
  repossessed. They drove millions of people into
  negative equity - with high interest rates and
  falling house prices.
• With Labour we have one million new homeowners
  and the lowest mortgage rates for half a century.
• The Tory shame was homeless people on the
  streets. Labour cut rough sleeping by two-thirds
  and reduced the number of families in bed and
  breakfast accommodation. And by next April we
  shall meet our pledge to end BB for all homeless
  families with children.