Britain - Cradle to the Grave

Attitudes towards poverty 1 - Victorians
1. people
  1. self help by Samuel Smiles
2. If people were in poverty / poor they we classes as
  1. bad christians
  2. wasting money on gambling, prostitution and / or alcohol
  3. ignorant and lazy
  4. wasted money rather than saving
3. Government
  1. Laissez faire
  2. old liberals
    1. Henry Campbell
    2. Bannerman - prime minister
4. law
  1. poor law
    1. indoor relief
      1. poor/ work house
    2. outdoor relief
      1. in your own home
    3. provision was very meagre (very little)
      1. they wanted to make sure you were sufficiently poor to merit aid (to get help)
      2. to deter people
        stigma of applying
Attitudes towards poverty 2 - Changing
1. Charities
  1. swamped and tried to convince people to take action
2. National Security
  1. Boer War showed Britain could scarcely protect her empire after 3 years of war against farmers
    1. In some places 2/3 of recruits were unfit or malnorished
3. National Efficiency
  1. government worried because British workforce was unfit and malnorished
  2. Countries such as Germany, America and Japan were over taking Britain ecconomically
4. Soup kitchens
  1. Dr Margret MacMillan and Fred Jowett (both socialists) used rates illegally to feed malnourished school children
    1. after they noticed they were falling asleep or not concentrating in class
5. Political Concerns
  1. Internally
    1. New Liberals like Winston Churchill and David Lloyd-George advocated state intervention
      1. influenced by social reforms in Germany and New Zealand
  2. Externallly
    1. Rise of Labour Party
      1. Harness working class votes
    2. Conservatives
      1. threatened introduction of social reform
      2. steal votes from Liberals
    3. Socialists
      1. intellectual groups like the Fabien Society and those helping the poor argued, loudly for government intervention
6. Investigations
  1. Social
    1. Charles Booth
      1. London
      2. 30%
    2. Seebohm Rowntree
      1. York
      2. 27%
  2. Royal Commission
    1. ordered after Boer War
      1. free school meals
Liberal Reforms
1. Children
  1. 1906 Education(provision of school meals) act
    1. problems
      1. Voluntary
        some councils could not afford it
        some councils did not believe in it
      2. socialism
  2. 1907 Education (Administrative Provisions) act
    1. introduced 3x medical inspections in school career
      1. problems
        they identified what was wrong but not treated
  3. 1908 a group of acts called the 'Children's Charter'
    1. banned children buying alcohol and cigarettes
    2. Juvenile Coarts
    3. burstals
      1. prevents falling to heavy crime
    4. abuse inspections
      1. physical, sexual, abandonment
2. Employed (all didn't effect enough people/workers)
  1. Workman's Compensation paid when injured or compensation for loss of life or limb
  2. Mines act set 8 hour working day and minimum wage
    1. problems
      1. strikes in WW1 abandoned hours and pay conditions for war effort
  3. Trades Board Act sweated trades - laundry, tailor, seamstress/dressmaker, lace worker
    1. Reginal Boards set pay and conditions
    2. problems
      1. different pay and conditions in every region
3. Elderly
  1. Old age pension act 1908
    1. kept many people out of poor/work houses
    2. collected from post office so no stigma attached
    3. helped a large number of elderly
    4. taxes paid for scheme so poor people did not have to make a contribution and push them deeper in to poverty
    5. problems
      1. had to be 70 to qualify - many did not live to this age (average age 55)
      2. rich people objected to their taxes being used for this
      3. limitations were if you had been in jail, the sanatorium, abroad for too much time then you did not qualify
      4. amounts paid were much lower than suggested by Rowntree
4. Sick
  1. National Insurance act (part I)
    1. provided medical attention
    2. paid for 26weeks - half and half - first 13 they got full pay(10) then half (5) for the second 13 weeks
    3. maternity grant for the first time ever
    4. problems
      1. only covered the person paying stamp but not their family members
      2. only people with TB got hospitalised
      3. seasonal workers couldn't pay enough stamps
      4. contributions pushed workers further into poverty
5. Unemployed
  1. Labour Exchanges
    1. employers and workers could go to the same place
    2. could mend and wash clothes
    3. 414 by 1911
    4. problems
      1. not compulsory to advertise jobs
      2. did not help -seasonal workers, specialist workers(engineers, masons)
  2. National Insurance act (part II)
    1. provided unemployment payments regularly
    2. contributions from worker - so he felt he was paying his way
    3. employer protecting their worker for the first time
    4. government replaced inadequate poor law for those workers covered
    5. problems
      1. did not cover enough workers - 7 trades
      2. contributions pushed poorer workers into poverty
      3. did not cover seasonal workers
      4. did not cover workers for long enough
Effects of the war
1. rationing
  1. equality in food and distribution
  2. poor people became more healthy
    1. some had more to eat
    2. better food
  3. rich ate what the poor ate
2. government introduced more education on sanitation, pregnancy, contraception and nutrition
3. housing
  1. every one "mucked in" to help when houses were bombed
    1. bombs did not discriminate between the classes neither did those who helped
    2. rich classes could see the conditions of the poor
4. war government introduced universal free milk for primary children
5. Classes mixed in together
  1. war duties
  2. shelters
  3. land armys
    1. people of all classes shared experiences and gained greater awareness of each other's lifestyles and needs
6. Armed forces
  1. men of all classes working together and gaining greater awareness of what should be done after the war is over
    1. this time they would create a new Britain unlike the false promises of WW1 "Home fit for hero's"
7. Beveridge report made lots of recommendations to the government to improve life after the war
8. government (mainly tories) published white papers on how to improve social conditions after the war
9. education plans of Tony R.A. Butler were introduced in1944 but implement by Labour in 1945
Social Investigations
1. Booth
  1. book published "life and labour of the people in London"
  2. poverty line
  3. 30% of all people in poverty
  4. poverty in London
2. Rowntree
  1. showed poverty was widespread
  2. primary poverty - used to describe those whose earnings were so low they could not survive on them alone
  3. 1/3 of people living in town in poverty
  4. York
  5. secondary poverty - used to describe those whose earnings were enough to live on but who spend money in a wasteful way
  6. cycle of poverty
3. Royal Cmmision

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Britain - Cradle to the Grave

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	Created by Katie Bryden over 11 years ago