Social Security : The Story of British Social Progress and the Beveridge Plan
1943 1943 1940s 3 preliminary leaves, 9-62 pages : illustrations, diagrams 10s. each, subject to a proof of need which is not very exacting. Unfortunately, however, there are still many gaps in our social security system which are unfilled or only inadequately filled. These are sharply revealed in t...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
London : G.G. Harrap and Co.
1943
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/6CB56D34-2004-4E95-BFE9-D7EF2AE49325 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/D6DBEEE4-7493-4F15-8747-009B6DD6C2E0 |
| Summary: | 1943
1943
1940s
3 preliminary leaves, 9-62 pages : illustrations, diagrams
10s. each, subject to a proof of need which is not very exacting. Unfortunately, however, there are still many gaps in our social security system which are unfilled or only inadequately filled. These are sharply revealed in the emergencies of sickness and old age, and also in the hard-pressed years when a man and wife are struggling to rear a young family. It is wrong that children should be a cause of poverty. (4) THE GAPS IN OUR SOCIAL SECURITY (see Charts 1, 2, and 3) (a) National Health Insurance. Take the case of sickness first. When National Health Insurance started in July 1912 a sick man only got 10s. per week, and a sick woman 7s. 6d., from insurance. Even to-day (1943) a man can only draw 18s. per week and a single woman 15s. per week ; after 26 weeks of sickness the rate falls. There are no dependants' allowances, and the sick man with a wife and young children obviously cannot live on 18s. per week. Failing family resources or the charity of friends, he has no option but to go "on the rates" — i.e., apply for Poor Law relief now called Public Assistance. This means real poverty. True, there has been a striking amelioration in Poor Law methods since the famous Royal Commission Report of 1909. "Social welfare" rather than "deterrence" is the rule and practice of many local authorities, especially in London, but the whole system, with its means test, etc., still retains a stigma. In 1942 as many as 107,000 cases representing about 250,000 people were on out-door relief through the sickness of the breadwinner. Some of these breadwinners were not insured at all, and it is, of course, only the Public Assistance Authorities who are responsible for meeting all the proved needs, in sickness or otherwise, of 14
15X/2/566/303 |
|---|---|
| Physical Description: | TEXT |