.O.3. A.C.1 & 2 by Analysing the Historical Origins of the Welfare State Identify and Evaluate Three Key Changes .O.3. A.C.1 & 2 by Analysing the Historical Origins of the Welfare State Identify and Evaluate Three Key Changes Welfare State

Britain's vastly expansive systems of welfare have evolved into the comprehensive 'Welfare State', originally devised by William Beveridge (1936), in order to compensate the inequalities of capitalism and oversee the general well-being of society. During this essay I intend to examine some of the major influences upon the evolution of welfare provision,   in an attempt to establish each issue's individual contribution to the structure of the modern 'Welfare State'. The key changes I have chosen to evaluate all occurred during the turbulent individualist Thatcher administration. The Thatcherite policies of 'Means testing', 'Right to buy' and 'the National curriculum' were introduced throughout the 1980s, reflecting Thatcher's view of an escalating 'dependency culture'.


The poor laws of the early 19th century were, by comparison, primitive and ineffective. Administration was via Local Parishes, funded by benevolent evangelicals and vertically redistributed amongst the poor. Increasing social disharmony due to a turbulent rural labour market and the escalating expense of supplementing 'outdoor relief', lead to reforms of the existing processes.


Common belief was that the only true claimants of the 'poor rate' were the 'deserving poor' (the disabled, orphaned and the elderly). Compulsory 'indoor relief' (workhouse based) was introduced as a deterrent to the 'undeserving poor' (able bodied paupers), where conditions were squalid and would be considered completely uninhabitable and unsanitary by today's standards. Flaws within the new system rapidly surfaced and outdoor relief had originally been intended to be abolished. However, this proved impossible and the 'labour test' was devised allowing outdoor relief in return for a little work (radicalism blab). Poor Law unions had been established to administrate the system, but an unproductive union/Royal commission relationship was remedied in 1847 by centralization and the appointment of the Poor Law Board....