4.3 - the beveridge report

what did the beveridge report identify?

five giants plaguing britain

what were the five giants?

want, idleness, disease, ignorance and squalor

this is evidence that…

governments up until this point had not successfully created a welfare state

what was want?

poverty, the key social problem and the root of all others

why was want still an issue?

as previous welfare schemes were limited and failed to address large sections of society

what reform did labour introduce to tackle want?

the 1946 national insurance act, which extended the original 1911 act to cover all adults

what else did labour introduce?

the 1948 national assistance act, which formally replaced the poor law with national assistance boards

what was idleness?

a lack of gainful employment, an issue plaguing britain since the 1920s

how did labour attempt to solve this?

with nationalisation

what was the unemployment rate by 1946?

2.5%

what was disease?

poor access to healthcare

labour addressed this by setting up…

the NHS which was operational by 1948

what did the NHS establish?

a universal and comprehensive healthcare system which was free at the point of service

what was ignorance?

poor quality education, particularly for the working class

ignorance was addressed with what act?

the 1944 butler education act

what did the butler act do?

it made education compulsory and free until 15 as well as establishing the tripartite system

was this entirely successful?

no as many issues with education still remained

what was squalor?

poor quality housing, a crisis britain had been facing even before the war

the new towns act of 1946 built…

23 new towns, all of which were healthy and spacious places to live

how many homes did labour build from 1945 til 1951?

around 200,000 annually

did labour create a welfare state?

yes

labours reforms were so successful, that they established…

a chain of consecutive consensus governments who all followed the ‘cradle to grave’ principle