The Rise Of The Welfare State

“This, by the way, is the welfare state in action: It’s a whole bunch of special interest groups screwing consumers and taxpayers, and making them think they're really benefiting” (Murray Rothbard).

The NHS came around in July 5, 1948. The Health Minister Aneurin (also known as Nye) Bevan purely nationalised the existing system across the UK. The groundbreaking change was to make all services freely available to everyone. Half of Scotland’s landmass was already covered by a state-funded health system serving the entire community and directly run from Edinburgh. Additionally, the war years had seen a state-funded hospital building programme in Scotland on a scale unknown in Europe. This was combined into the new NHS. Scotland also had its own individual medical tradition, this is centred on its medical schools rather than private practice. The legislation that empowered the UK to have the NHS is National Health Service Act (1948), this despite opposition from doctors, who maintained on the right to continue treating some patients privately. The NHS ensured that Doctors, hospital, dentists, opticians, ambulances, midwives and health visitors were available, free to everybody. This Reason why we have health services is because it developments a view that health care was a right, not something given unreliably by charity, also two-party’s agreement that the existing services were in a mess and had to be sorted out, it stopped financial difficulties for the voluntary hospitals and After the second world war it ensured the creation of an emergency medical service as part of the war effort

This essay will examine how the development of the Welfare State and the NHS changed the lives of the people of Britain since its introduction in 1948. To enable me to do so, I will analyse and evaluate the key relevant aspects that happened during that period.

Following the welfare reforms that were introduced by the New Labour Government in 1997, the coalition Government has developed, extended and continued welfare-to-work programmes (Deacon and Patrick, 2012). The Government’s ‘rehabilitation revolution’ saw policies designed to reduce reoffending, and as a consequence resettlement initiatives emerged with welfare-to-work programmes (Ministry of Justice, 2010). Since the implementation of the ‘Work Programme’ in 2011, welfare provision has seen a high influx of ex-offenders and Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangement (MAPPA) participants referred to programmes (Gov.UK, 2016). The main provider in Wales has delivered learning and development provision to approximately 24,000 ex-offenders (Working Links, 2013). The ultimate aim of the provider is to ensure participants secure sustainable employment. Accordingly, front-line staff have undergone specialist training to deal with ‘risk’ and mentor clients with complex and multiple needs. However, there is a dearth of research focusing on this contemporary phenomena. Considering the pivotal role employment schemes play in rehabilitating offenders, it is of paramount importance to determine whether or not the Governments confidence in employability schemes is justified.

In conclusion the Welfare State was created on the principle that the state accepted a responsibility to protect and promote the welfare of all citizens. It must be noted that the system was designed to provide a national minimum, not reduce inequalities. I have looked in detail at all aspects to combat the “five giants “and the popular support when the Beveridge report was introduced. I have also looked at flaws in the system, however the cornerstone of the Beveridgian welfare system, was left almost untouched until the 1980’s.

Changes within the welfare system as a result of policy shifts and by new thinking, more generally in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), have had many methods, but the one that seemed most important, was that welfare recipients were required to do much more to justify their income support payments than before. The foundation of this new idea is that income support programs should allow individuals to maximise their participation in work. Due to the general shift in welfare administration, the number of activity test requirements an individual in Australia must meet in order to receive unemployment benefits, has expanded significantly since the early 1990s. This complex, overly bureaucratic process means that disadvantaged individuals cannot access the income support payments they require.

When the United States of America first began, there were small villages with men and women of varying degrees of wealth. Like any society, there were people who had little money and poor living conditions while others were wealthy. In the colonies of the new world, the church and the neighbors of those in poverty helped provide food and clothing, while also finding ways to improve their daily lives. These acts of kindness were an enormous help to the poor but sadly became less effective to those individuals as the population of the colonies increased along with the number of those in poverty. Soon seeing the streets filled with the poor the government of this new country decided that an improved method of help should be put into effect:

You’re invited to pull back the curtain on the ultimate façade that really needs to be exposed. You’ll find them at the nail shop and buying knock off Gucci out of the trunks of Monte Carlos in the parking lot at the Boulevard Mall. The glittering galaxy life of all your favorite Instagram stars and let’s not forget our very special guest, the cunning, the conniving county con artist that lives the lack luster lifestyle of the broke and stressed out. She is this paper’s unchallenged authority on doing it big on a budget and the fabulous food stamp life. She has been all over the country creating a lifestyle that Welfare critics will never stop talking about. A real life Cinderella that never went to the ball and never found her prince charming, America’s Welfare Queen.

The welfare system first came into action during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Unemployed citizens needed federal assistance to escape the reality of severe poverty. The welfare system supplies families with services such as: food stamps, medicaid, and housing among others. The welfare system has played a vital role in the US, in controlling the amount of poverty to a certain level. Sadly, the system has been abused and taken for granted by citizens across the country. The welfare system was previously controlled by the federal government until 1996; the federal government handed over the responsibility to the states in hope of reducing welfare abuse. However, this change has not prevented folks from scamming the system. The

What would happen if the government made changes to the welfare system? There are approximately 110,489,000 of Americans on welfare. Many people benefit from what the system has to offer: food stamps, housing, health insurance, day care, and unemployment. Taxpayers often argue that the individuals who benefit from the system, abuse the system; however, this is not entirely true. Many of the people who receive benefits really and truly need the help. Even though some people believe welfare should be reformed, welfare should not be reformed because 40% of single mothers are poor, some elderly people do not have a support system, and college students can not afford to take extra loans.

The welfare state makes capitalism and democracy possible by allowing a partial free market since regulations are put into place. By doing this, it aims to mobilize the working class. For instance, labor market policies protect the working class through “passive measures such as unemployment insurance that help soften the blows to individuals caused by market dislocations, [and] active measures such as worker training”(Schulze-Cleven, pg.80). Through these measures the working class is still being helped, but at the expense of others, through taxation. For example, unemployment insurance “is administered by states according to federal and state guidelines, and it is financed through a complex mix of federal and state payroll taxes”(Schulze-Cleven, pg.82). Through taxation the state gains power, but the population benefits from it.

During the early nineteenth century poverty was major issue, the Poor Law passed earlier in the Tudor period put responsibility on local parishes to pay tax to help the poor. However, over the years the financial strain on parishes became too much and in 1834 The Poor Amendment Act was passed. This was to help reduce the cost of looking after the poor and it was to stop the payment of tax unless you had special circumstances. If the poor wanted help they had to go in to workhouses and work, in exchange for clothes, food, free healthcare and a few hours of schooling for children. The poor had no choice but to go in there for help. On one hand The Poor Amendment Act 1834 was good as it gave the poor free food, shelter, healthcare and education for their children. However, the conditions in the work houses were made so awful that people would avoid going in there unless they were really desperate. The diet was bad, families were spilt up and the people in there had to wear uniform.

The idea behind the welfare state was to relieve poverty, reduce inequality, and achieve greater

Modern welfare state development is generally considered to lead to social security or benefits payments, social housing provision, health provision, social work and educational services.

From the colonialization of America to the present, social welfare has evolved tremendously. American values during each era helped determine how the poor were to be treated. Values such as Puritan work ethic, felt that if you were not working then you were immoral. Two other values that were prominent in American’s history are individualism and capitalism. Individualism is the belief that one can succeed without the help of others while the capitalistic view felt that a free market system would help create jobs. The Judeo-Christian value comes up in our history as well and says that those who are deemed worthy morally deserve the help of others. These values shaped perspectives on social welfare. One perspective called the problem centered approach feels that it is the individual’s actions are to blame for their poverty. The other perspective is the conflict approach where it is believed that things out of our control cause poverty. This could be an economic downturn or policies that affect individuals financially.