Liberal welfare reforms

The Liberal welfare reforms (1906-1914 [http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/britain/liberalreformsrev1.shtml BBC - GCSE Bitesize - History | Modern World History | Britain 1905-1951 | The Liberal reforms 1906-1914 ] ] ) collectively describes social legislation passed by the British Liberal Party after the 1906 General Election. It has been argued that this legislation shows the emergence of the modern welfare state in the UK. They shifted their outlook from laissez-faire system purposefully designed to punish the poor with workhouses and the like to a system where relief was not designed so as to cause human suffering. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/bitesize/higher/history/liberal/impact1_rev.shtml BBC - Education Scotland - Higher Bitesize Revision - History - Liberal - Impact: Revision 1 ] ] The reforms demonstrate the split that had emerged within liberalism, between progressive liberalism and classical liberalism, and a change in direction for the Liberal Party from liberalism, in general, to a party of progressive liberalism and larger, more active government.

The Liberal welfare reforms took place after a Royal Commission on how the countries Poor Law provision should be altered. Two contrasting reports known as the Majority report and the Minority Report were published, and as they differed so greatly the Liberals were able to ignore both reports and implement their own reforms. By implementing the reforms outside of the Poor Law the stigma attached to claiming relief was also removed.

During the 1906 General Election campaign none of the parties made poverty an election issue and no promises were made to introduce welfare reforms. Despite this the Liberals led by Henry Campbell-Bannerman won a landslide victory and began introducing wide ranging reforms as soon as they took office. [ [http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/britain1906to1918/g1/gallery1.htm The National Archives Learning Curve | Britain 1906-18 | Liberal Welfare Reforms 1906-11: Gallery ] ]

Reasons for the Liberal reforms (1906-14)

*The split within liberalism leading to the rise of progressive liberalism within the Liberal Party, and the de-emphasis of what some refer to as "classical" liberalism, which had allegedly been the dominant ideology within the party. Historically, liberalism emphasized a system of government to protect liberty; historically, liberalism viewed the threat to liberty as mainly coming from the force and coercion of the state; the split within liberalism occurred when many liberals viewed threats to individual liberty arising from sources other than the state, such as from the concentration of money, the amalgamation of power, or in the destitution of the poor, the sick, or the elderly. Progressive liberalism was an ideology which promoted an active government as the best guardian of liberty - both theoretical liberty and effective liberty - through government aid. Several 'New Liberals' such as David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill replaced the earlier ideology apparent in figures such as William Gladstone ("see Gladstonian Liberalism") who felt that people should be more trusting of their fate to market forces and the "invisible hand" of capitalism.
*The writings of Charles Booth and Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree. These writers helped change attitudes towards the causes of poverty. Booth carried out extensive research into the poor living conditions and poverty experienced in London, whilst Rowntree made a social investigation into the problems experienced by the poor in York. These investigations provided statistical evidence for genuine moral concern for the poor. They stated that illness and old age were greater causes of poverty than idleness and moral weakness. Rowntree was himself a close friend of Lloyd George, after the two met in 1907 after Lloyd George became President of the Board of Trade. Rowntree himself hoped that his proposals could influence Liberal policy. [ [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RErowntreeS.htm Seebohm Rowntree ] ]
*The threat from the emerging Labour Party. Socialism was an increasingly popular ideology; if the Liberals did not put forward popular policies, they were in danger of losing votes and handing the House of Commons to the Conservatives.
*The trade union movement was growing especially during the period 1910-1912. Unless living conditions were improved there were genuine concerns that workers may turn to communism or rebellion. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/britain/liberalreformsrev3.shtml BBC - GCSE Bitesize - History | Modern World History | Britain 1905-1951 | Reforms and reasons ] ]
* The fact that the Liberals had to form a coalition government with the Labour Party after the 1910 General Election meant that further legislation was passed, since the Labour Party, which was socially democratic, was allied to workers through their affiliated trade unions.
*The condition of soldiers during the Boer War was considered unacceptable. The British government had trouble enlisting enough able-bodied recruits to the British army.
*Germany and the USA were overtaking Britain as economic powers - the success of social legislation in Bismarck's Germany made leading Liberals in the UK such as David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill want to put forward similar legislation.
*The emergence of public works schemes set up to improve living conditions which were often run by the Liberals raised the possibility that such schemes could occur on a national scale. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/bitesize/higher/history/liberal/motives2_rev.shtml BBC - Education Scotland - Higher Bitesize Revision - History - Liberal - Motives: Revision 2 ] ]

ocial legislation passed by the previous Conservative government

The Conservative government in office before the Liberals came to power passed the Unemployed Workman's Act in 1905 and the Employment of Children Act in 1905. Slum housing was also cleared for new houses to be built. Much of this legislation was left for local authorities to implement - their attitudes affected whether legislation was fully implemented. [ [http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/britain1906to1918/g1/background.htm The National Archives Learning Curve | Britain 1906-18 | Liberal Welfare Reforms 1906-11: Gallery Background ] ] The Conservatives also set up a Royal Commission to enquire into the workings of the Poor Law.

Liberal reforms 1906-1914

Children

In 1906 Children were provided with free school meals. However, many local councils ignored this system, as it was not compulsory for them to provide the free meals. In 1908 the Children and Young Person's Act formed part of the Children's Charter which imposed punishments for those neglecting children. It became illegal to sell children tobacco and alcohol or to send children begging. Juvenile courts and borstals were created instead for young offenders so they did not have to stand in adult courts and go to adult prisons for most offences. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/britain/liberalreformsrev2.shtml BBC - GCSE Bitesize - History | Modern World History | Britain 1905-1951 | The important reforms ] ] It was not until 1912 that medical treatment was available even though the medical inspections began in 1907. Education authorities largely ignored the provision of free medical treatment for school children. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/britain/liberalreformsrev2.shtml BBC - GCSE Bitesize - History | Modern World History | Britain 1905-1951 | The important reforms ] ] The provision of free school meals was made compulsory in 1914- in which year fourteen million were served, most free. In 1912, half of all councils in Britain were offering the scheme. The government realised that they could not fight WW1 with a force of malnurished and ill children, when they had to conscript.

Elderly

In 1908 pensions were introduced for the over 70s. This paid 5s a week (25p in today's money) to single men and women and 7s 6d to married couples, on a sliding scale. The single persons rate applied to those over 70 earning under £21, this sum could be collected at the local post office. The pensions were means-tested (to receive the pension one had to earn less than £31.50 annually) and intentionally low to encourage workers to make their own provisions for the future. Not only this, but to qualify for the pension scheme, you had to have worked to your "full potential". There were no fixed guidelines as to what your "full potential" was, so people who had been briefly unemployed could be penalised. To be eligible you also would have had to live in the country for 20 years or more, so many immigrants could not claim their pensions, or British people who had worked abroad and returned to Britain to retire. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Age_Pensions_Act_1908]

Workers

In 1909 labour exchanges were set up in order to help unemployed people find work, by providing centres where a large amount of employers and the unemployed could post jobs and apply for them respectively. In 1913 these labour exchanges were putting around 3000 people into a job each day. The National Insurance Act (Part I) passed in 1911 gave workers the right to sick pay of 10s a week and free medical treatment in return for a payment for 4d (the payments would last for 26 weeks if the person was off ill).The medical treatment was provided by doctors who belonged to a "panel" in each district. Doctors received a fee from the insurance fund for each "panel" patient they treated. The National Insurance Act (Part II) gave workers the right to unemployment pay of 7s 6d a week for 15 weeks in return for a payment of 2½d a week.

Health Insurance

Under Part 1 of the [http://www.sochealth.co.uk/history/NIA1911.htm National Insurance Act 1911] compulsory health insurance was provided for workers earning less than £160 per year. The scheme was contributed to by the worker who contributed fourpence, the employer who contributed threepence and the government who contributed twopence. The scheme provided sickness benefit entitlement of nine shillings (45 pence), free medical treatment and maternity benefit of 30 shillings (£1.50). [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/bitesize/higher/history/liberal/impact2_rev.shtml BBC - Education Scotland - Higher Bitesize Revision - History - Liberal - Impact: Revision 2 ] ]

Unemployment insurance

Under Part 2 of the National Insurance Act 1911 which dealt with unemployment insurance most insured workers were given seven shillings (35 pence) unemployment benefit which could be claimed for up to 15 weeks a year. This scheme was also financed through the contributions of workers and government.

People's Budget and the 1909 constitutional crisis

The Liberal reforms were funded by David Lloyd George passing his People's Budget which taxed the rich in order to pay for relieve the conditions of working citizens and the ill and injured. The budget met opposition in the House of Lords and passed with a Parliament Act to limit the powers of the Lords over the Commons. The crisis led to the Liberals losing their majority in the House of Commons and relying on the support of the small number of Labour and Irish nationalist MPs.

Lloyd George argued that his budget would eliminate poverty, and while trying to get the Act passed he gave this speech outlining his reasons for supporting the reforms:

"This is a war Budget. It is for raising money to wage implacable warfare against poverty and squalidness. I cannot help hoping and believing that before this generation has passed away, we shall have advanced a great step towards that good time, when poverty, and the wretchedness and human degradation which always follows in its camp, will be as remote to the people of this country as the wolves which once infested its forests". [ [http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/britain1906to1918/g2/gallery2.htm The National Archives Learning Curve | Britain 1906-18 | Achievements of Liberal Welfare Reforms: Gallery 2 ] ]

Reforms after 1910

After 1910 the Liberal Party did not have a majority in the House of Commons and so entered into a coalition with 42 Labour Party MPs who had been elected. This led to further reforms as the Liberals required Labour support and Irish support to remain in office.

Limitations of the reforms

While the Liberal reforms were one of Britain's most ambitious welfare reform programmes, there were several limitations to the reforms they passed. Free school meals were not compulsory. Pensions were refused to those who had not been in work most of their life and life expectancy at this time was only 55 so many people never lived long enough to receive a pension. The labour exchange programme often managed to find people only part-time casual work. The poor had to pay National Insurance Contributions out of their wages and the 7s 6d was not enough to live on. Unemployment and sickness pay also only lasted for a limited time. Free medical care was available to only a wage-earner, not the wife or children or grandparents and other relatives. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/britain/liberalreformsrev4.shtml BBC - GCSE Bitesize - History | Modern World History | Britain 1905-1951 | Four Results of the Liberal reforms ] ]

Contemporary criticism of the Liberal reforms

The Liberal reforms received criticism from those who saw this level of government action to mitigate social evils as interfering with market forces and thus being antithetical to the operations of a free market. The cost of the reforms was also criticised and there were also critics who suggested that the reforms would not work in practise. [ [http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/britain1906to1918/g2/cs1/g2cs1.htm The National Archives Learning Curve | Britain 1906-18 | Case Study: Critics ] ]

There were "classical" liberals who opposed these reforms; this includes Harold Cox, elected as a Liberal in 1906, was almost alone among Liberal MPs in his opposition. He considered them to be "eroding freedom" and "undermining individual responsibility". He lost his seat to a Conservative in January 1910. [W. H. Greenleaf, "The British Political Tradition. Volume Two: The Ideological Heritage" (London: Methuen, 1983), pp. 95-7.] The Liberal journalist and editor of "The Economist" (1907-1916), F. W. Hirst, also opposed the reforms and the welfare state in general. [Greenleaf, p. 98.]

Some workers objected to paying 7d per week to the National Insurance contributions. [ [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Linsurance1911.htm 1911 National Insurance Act ] ] The chant "Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief" was chanted at Lloyd George by workers and referred to the suggestion that Welshman Lloyd George was taking their wages away from them. However, Lloyd George responded with his famous phrase "Nine pence for four pence" which referenced to that fact that employers and the government were topping up the workers' contributions. [ [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/ldhansrd/vo000202/text/00202-03.htm Lords Hansard text for 2 Feb 2000 (200202-03) ] ]

Legislation included as part of the Liberal reforms

*Trade Disputes Act 1906 - Protected labour unions from frivolous legal claims, such as the subject of a strike claiming economic damages caused by the voluntary withholding of labour by workers, or the subject of a boycott claiming the union economically damaged them by encouraging people to voluntarily shop elsewhere.
*Workmen's Compensation Act 1906 - Granted compensation for injury at work.
*Merchant Shipping Act 1906
*Education (Provision of Meals) Act 1906
*Education (Administrative Provisions) Act 1907 - created school medical inspections .
*Mines Act 1908 - Miners now worked 8 hour days.
*1908 Children and Young Person's Act (Children's Charter)
*Old Age Pensions Act 1908
*Labour Exchanges Act 1909
*Trade Boards Act 1909
*Housing and Town Planning Act 1909
*National Insurance Act 1911
*Shops Act 1911 - shop owners could not take half a day off work per week.
*Minimum Wage Act (Miners) 1912

From 1911 MPs were given a salary of £400 per annum, meaning that it was much easier for working class people to stand for election.

The beginning of the welfare state?

With the Beveridge Report and reforms of the Labour government under Clement Attlee creating what would be considered the modern welfare state protecting citizens from "cradle to grave" it can be argued that the Liberal reforms show the emergence of the welfare state some forty years earlier. However, the Liberal reforms were not a preconceived welfare programme; it was more a response to political change (the newly enfranchised working classes and emerging Labour Party) and political factors such as the Boer War. The reforms were not as grand in scale and implementation as the later Attlee reforms in the sense that they relied on local government for implementation and still involved working with friendly societies. The implementation of these reforms by local government was patchy.

Only pensions were non-contributory, the health and insurance reforms required contributions. Rosemary Ree's argues in "Poverty and Public Health 1815-1948" that the reforms also contained an element of Victorian moral attitudes in that the reforms did not cater to sections of society considered undeserving of help. The reforms signaled a fundamental shift in attitudes towards poverty and the poor, and also in asking the rich to pay higher taxes to aid their fellow citizens in need, which occurred in Lloyd George's People's Budget, and would be repeated in Labour's reforms between 1945-1951.

ee also

*People's Budget

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/bitesize/higher/history/liberal/motives_rev.shtml BBC site assessing reasons for the Liberal reforms]
* [http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/britain1906to1918/g1/gallery1.htm Liberal welfare reforms 1906-11]
* [http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/britain1906to1918/g2/gallery2.htm Achievements of the Liberal reforms]
* [http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/lessons/british_1895/liberal_reforms.htm An interactive 'spider diagram' showing reasons for the Liberal reforms]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/britain/liberalreformsrev1.shtml BBC bitesize revision site]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/bitesize/higher/history/liberal/impact1_rev.shtml BBC page on the nature of the reforms]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/bitesize/higher/history/liberal/impact2_rev.shtml BBC page on the effect the Liberal reforms had on different sections of society]

Further reading

"Origins of the Liberal Welfare Reforms, 1906-14 (Studies in economic and social history) by James Roy Hay ISBN-13: 978-0333135884"

References