This was because there was a commonly held belief that the deprived were responsible for there poor living conditions, as they did not work hard enough – like the upper-class did, some would argue. Yet, the Liberals did pass reforms between 1906 and 1914 in order to tackle this problem. For example, the Old Age Pension Act of 1908 and Education (Provision of Meals) Act of 1906. Two social surveys were published during this time, that not only shocked the British public but changed popular opinion on the causes of poverty. They helped pave the way for a whole range of Government-led welfare reforms.
How effectively did the Liberals help the poor? (16 marks) After the Liberal Party won the General Election in 1906, they introduced a series of social reforms which were mainly focused to help the old, sick, young, and unemployed to tackle the problem associated with poverty. It was agreed that the Liberals did improve the living conditions of the poor in Britain, but also there were many limitations which were overlooked at that time. Children in the 19th century were given help provided by some charities: they helped poor families, but not children specifically. Orphans were looked after in workhouses.
By 1915 nearly 1 million were receiving it. HOWEVER not many people in those days lived to 70, it was not much and could be removed in ‘undeserving’ cases. • YOUNG, 1906 Free School Meals: Free school meals given to children and studies showed that during the holidays children’s health declined rapidly showing just how important these free means were to children’s health. However, up until 1914 it was up to the local authorities to provide this kind of care and many didn’t do that leaving lots of children malnourished. 1907 School Medical Inspections: Doctors and nurses were sent to school to inspect children and identify a health problem if one.
In 1906 the Liberal government were being to realise the effect that poverty was having on the country as a whole including the Liberals ability to govern the country. Research carried out by reformers such as Charles Booth and Seebohm Rowntree influenced the Liberals and enlightened them to the state of poverty in our country. Looking at the research the Liberals saw that more than 30% of our population were living below the poverty line (that Booth had devised). From this they could clearly see that something needed to be done about this. The work of Booth and Rowntree had for the first time highlighted that fact that people were not in poverty just because they were lazy.
How effective were the Liberal social reforms in the period 1906 to 1914? In the early Twentieth Century poverty in Britain was a very serious issue. There were groups of society who had no way of tackling or rising out of poverty. Poverty was more evident in the North of Britain and in big cities, although rural poverty was also a problem. Particularly vulnerable groups were the old, who had no means of acquiring money.
The first direct move to alleviate the plight of deprived children came in 1906 with the passing of the Education (provision of meals) Act. This allowed local authorities to increase local taxes to cover the cost of providing free school meals for children in schools. It was successful in that children lost weight during the summer holidays, suggesting that school meals had become an important part of their diet. However, sadly this act did not achieve its goal of making sure all children in education received one nutritional meal a day. This was due to the fact that the Education Act did not force local authorities to provide free meals.
The author’s main theory is that the economy is headed for a recession. The text book defines fiscal policy as: Changes in government spending and tax collections designed to achieve a full-employment and non inflationary domestic output. Government spending is understated and slightly overlooked in the article. The author only hints of the fact that federal government spending on defense is down. “Another negative factor was a 6.6 percent drop, on an annualized basis, in federal defense spending.” She supports that the decrease in GDP is directly related to the decrease in government spending g which proves how fiscal policy can affect overall economic growth.
By the early 1900s, nearly all of the states had written compulsory school education laws, yet the exclusion of students with disabilities was more common than not (Aiello, 1976, as cited in Coleman, 1992). The first three decades of the twentieth century hosted a number of milestone events as well as the establishment of national organizations principally for the welfare of disturbed individuals. In 1909, Clifford Beers and a psychologist named William James created the National Committee for Mental Hygiene. Beers, himself, had been a patient in three institutions where he received poor treatment. He wanted the public to be aware of the mistreatment happening in these housings.
There was also a smaller gap between the wealth of all social classes. Overall, the Great Depression forced America to come together to defeat its hardships, which, after over a decade of struggle, it eventually
This informed liberals that the ‘welfare’ that the poor law provided, was not working. It could be said that this led to the introduction of reform acts in order to tackle the poverty felt by the young and the old. The Old Age Pensions Act was introduced in 1908 and provided the over 70’s with income to tackle their poverty. It was far more dignified than the provisions provided to the elderly prior to this as, unlike the poor law, it provided no shame to the people. One of the Acts passed to aid children was the Administrative Provision Act which appealed to the idea of National efficiency.