Memorandum on the Beveridge Report
1943-02 1943 1940s 28 pages One of the best features of the Beveridge report is that it proposes to abolish the Means Test for unemployment and sick benefit and (after twenty years) for old age pensions. Unemployed people were expected to conform to certain regulations with regard to taking jobs in...
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| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
| Language: | English English |
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London : Communist Party of Great Britain
February 1943
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/F53BF48A-3C0E-4735-B50D-705C21AF1D7D http://hdl.handle.net/10796/1E99FD10-0744-4DCB-A0C7-EB8814B00600 |
| Summary: | 1943-02
1943
1940s
28 pages
One of the best features of the Beveridge report is that it proposes to abolish the Means Test for unemployment and sick benefit and (after twenty years) for old age pensions. Unemployed people were expected to conform to certain regulations with regard to taking jobs in other than their usual industries, and of undergoing training, while the sick were expected to conform to certain standards of behaviour. A section of the Tory Party dearly loves the Means Test, however, and so the Government proposes that after a certain period of unemployment, the worker must face the hated inquisition once again. With regard to children's allowances, the modifications proposed by the Government are extremely serious. Beveridge suggested a children's allowance of 8/- cash and 1/- welfare services. The Government suggest 3/- cash and 2/6 child welfare services. Beveridge was in favour of children's allowances being given for the second and each subsequent child of an employed worker, and for all children of a worker on benefit. The Government is not quite sure whether the first child of a worker on benefit should have a children's allowance or not. Now the reason for this attitude is explained in a memorandum which the British Employers' Confederation sent to Sir William Jowitt, as minister in charge of reconstruction, only six days before the Government announced its attitude to the Beveridge Report in the House of Commons. "Under the Beveridge Report," says the Employers' Confederation, "an unemployed man with a wife and one child would receive 48/-. During his unemployment he would be relieved of his 4/3 contribution and of travelling or other expenses, which he would normally incur when at work. "It would therefore mean that the minimum wage at which such a man could be expected to accept a job would have to be something a little higher than £3 a week if he was to derive any advantage from working." Nothing could be clearer. The Beveridge Report is opposed because it would make the payment of starvation wages more difficult. There is no need to deal in detail with the other reservations 5
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |