Compare & Contrast with Examples, the Changing Approach to Poverty and State Intervention from the Victorian Period to the Present Day in the Uk

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Submit one 1,000 word essay. Compare & contrast with examples, the changing approach to poverty and state intervention from the Victorian period to the present day in the UK The origins of the welfare state began in Elizabethan times with the first attempt to ensure the poor had means to live; The Poor Law Act 1601. This system continued right the way through the centuries with the Liberal government reforms such as the National Insurance Act and the National Health Service both 1946. This essay will describe and discuss the provisions of the welfare state in Britain and the changing attitudes to poverty over time from early 19th century to the present day. Based on Levitas (2012) report, current government legislation claims there are 120,000 troubled families in Britain today, which are established by five or more noted disadvantages. These include income, employment, health deprivation, disability, crime, education and living conditions. A speech by David Cameron suggests the reasons for these troubled families are caused by ‘drug and alcohol abuse, crime, a culture of disruption’ but failed to address why troubled families, are troubled. ‘The gap between the highest and lowest paid in Britain is not only growing but is set to return to Victorian levels’ (Ward, 2011). In the early 19th century, The Poor Law Act 1834 changed the approach to the poor, from the 1601 Poor Law Act. The attitude became a more punitive approach to deter people from claiming relief and get people back into work. Webb and Webb (1963). With the rise of the Industrial Revolution, competition for better paid jobs caused thousands of people to migrate from the rural areas of Britain, to the urban. Although the economy was fast growing, the over-populated, unsanitary conditions had a huge effect on people in Britain, particularly the working-class. Poynter (1969). The Poor Law
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