The Welfare State - Key Legislation

The Welfare State was, in Beveridge's famous phrase, a "British revolution" - an attempt to break away from the legacy of the Poor Law and to establish a new, universal system on completely different principles. The Welfare State was going to offer support for everyone, as of right. Several measures were introduced before the foundation of the 'welfare state':

• 1944 The wartime coalition government committed itself to full employment by Keynesian methods, which had been shown to work by the New Deal in the USA.
• 1944 Education Act: free universal secondary education
• 1945 Family Allowance Act.

The timing of key legislation was set to come into force on the same day, 5 July 1948 - a process which emphasised that, from that point on, everything was supposed to be different. The key measures were:

• 1946 National Insurance Act
• 1946 National Insurance Act (Industrial Injuries)
• 1946 National Health Service Act.
• 1948 National Assistance Act. This contained the abolition of the Poor Law, and set out a new legislative framework for provision for people in need, including residential care.
• 1948 Children Act, which established local authority departments to receive children into care.

The 'Welfare State' was not intended to respond to poverty; that was what the Poor Law had done. The main purpose was to encourage the provision of the social services on the same basis as the public services - roads, libraries and so forth - an 'institutional' model of welfare.