The History of the welfare state in the United Kingdom covers the growth of welfare programs and programs for the poor since the 13th century, with emphasis on the establishment of a welfare state in the 20th century. For recent trends see Welfare state in the United Kingdom.
Historical trends Before 1900 Poor laws
According to historian Ian Keil, the poor laws evolved from a church-based system to an increasingly centralized state system over time, with a focus on workhouses and restricting relief in the 19th century.Ian John Ernest Keil, "Poor Laws," in John Cannon, ed., The Oxford Companion to British History (2002) pp.759–760. In medieval times, canon law required parishes to use one-third of tithe income to support the poor. This system broke down over time as tithe revenues were diverted elsewhere. Parliament intervened with the Statute of Cambridge 1388 that penalized unauthorized departures, legitimized begging and required parishes to support their own poor. The "Old Poor Law" of 1601 created a more coherent system, requiring each parish to be responsible for its own poor, funded by collecting rates from property owners. It distinguished the deserving and undeserving poor. The Act of Settlement 1662 restricted poor relief to long-term residents or those born in a parish. In the 18th century, some parishes formed unions to build workhouses for the poor who were able to work.Christopher Hill, Society and Puritanism in Pre-Revolutionary England (1967) pp.259–297 is a full description;online.
The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 established a stricter workhouse system and created unions of parishes administered by boards of guardians.S.E. Finer, The life and times of Sir Edwin Chadwick (1952) pp 39–49.Peter Collinge, and Louise Falcini, eds., Providing for the Poor: The Old Poor Law, 1750–1834 (2022). It was designed make the alternative to paid labor an unpleasant experience, with a goal of punishing shirkers and minimizing expenditures. The 1834 act was imposed by the local landed gentry and was widely disliked by the poor. The object of the workhouses, one official stated, "is to establish therein a discipline so severe and repulsive as to make them a terror to the poor and prevent them from entering."Quoted in E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (1963) p. 267.S.E. Finer, The life and times of Sir Edwin Chadwick (1952) pp.39–140. Nevertheless it remained the basic system, with some amendments, until 1929.Margaret Anne Crowther. The Workhouse System 1834–1929: The history of an English social institution (Routledge, 2016) pp.1–10.
Alongside the Poor Law, the nineteenth century also saw proposals for new forms of social insurance. In 1868, the Rev. John Young Stratton proposed a system of insurance for wage-paid workers administered through the Post Office. Historians Philip Corrigan and Derek Sayer identify Stratton's scheme as part of contemporary discussion of a "State Friendly Society".
Public education
Free public education is a major element of the welfare state, and emerged finally in 1902. In 1800 there was far from agreement that universal education was beneficial. The elites were very well educated. They started with home tutoring, followed by very expensive "public schools" (like Eton College), and capped off at Oxford and Cambridge universities. Before industrialization took hold around 1800, most parents were farm workers with no education, and they saw little need to pay money to educate their children. As the cities grew explosively there was a growing need for literate workers. However Some elites felt that any schooling for the working classes as unnecessary or even dangerous. However, by the 1830s, that attitude faded away and the risks of educating the working classes were generally seen as outweighed by the risks of leaving them ignorant or allowing their education to be out of the control of the authorities.Chadwick (1966), 1:337. As political reforms enlarged the electorate it became more urgent to educate the new electorate. Educational reformer James Kay-Shuttleworth said in 1838 that the state was responsible for "rearing... children in religion and industry, and of imparting such an amount of secular education as may fit them to discharge the duties of their station."Quoted in John Rule, The Labouring Classes in Early Industrial England, 1750–1850 (1986) p.248.
"Voluntary schools" operated by churches For England and Wales, Parliament began annual funding to schools operated by churches in the mid 1830s, and steadily increased the amounts and the oversight. The main religious denominations set up full-time local elementary schools, with modest tuition, for their own children. They taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and religion up to grade 8, as well as how to follow schedules, plan ahead, and behave in orderly fashion.Owen Chadwick, The Victorian Church: Part I (1966) pp. 336–346. In rural England the Anglicans of the established Church of England were dominant. In towns there were schools operated by the "Dissenting" or "Nonconformist" Methodists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Baptists. These all were called "Voluntary Schools" and before the 1830s the local and national government provided no aid. Nonconformists set up the "British and Foreign School Society" in 1808 to help with funding and textbooks, while the Church of England in 1811 set up a similar "National Society for Promoting Religious Education" to help its larger network of National schools. With the arrival of over a million Irish Catholics after 1845, the larger cities soon had Catholic elementary schools. The quality of provision varied significantly, and the average length of attendance was only three years.
Parliament took interest and in 1839 began making annual subsidies. The Dissenters complained as most of the money went to the Anglican schools. In Manchester, a booming industrial center with 355,000 people in 1870, rivalry among the Voluntary Schools was fierce. Of the 164 schools receiving government subsidies in 1869, 37% were Church of England, 16% were Dissenting, 11% were Catholic, and 37% were nondenominational.E. G. West, Education and the State: A Study in Political Economy (Liberty Fund, 1994) p. 88.
Scotland had a separate educational system, one with a long tradition of state-funded education dating back to the 17th century.. The system which made school provision the responsibility of parishes of the established Presbyterian Church. They generally led to better outcomes than elsewhere in Great Britain but struggled to cope with the pressures of industrialisation and standards began to slip. A similar kind of grant system to voluntary schools was used in Scotland as in England. The Education (Scotland) Act 1872 introduced many of the same kinds of reforms as were taking place in England and Wales during the later 19th century. Education was made compulsory for five to thirteen-year-olds, the structure of the system was simplified, and many new schools were built. The 1870 Elementary Education Act was intended to establish universal access to state-funded schools and the state began to run schools directly for the first time through a system of local governance. Education became compulsory for five- to ten-year-olds in 1880 and fees abolished in 1891. Compulsory education was expanded to deaf children, blind children and all children up to the age of twelve in the 1890s.
Churches also run Sunday Schools Sunday schools were free programs, one day a week, for all the children in a parish, including those attending a regular school on week days. Inexperienced parents volunteered to do the teaching. They taught reading and hymns. The movement began in the 1780s and rapidly spread across Britain. In 1824 some 400,000 Anglican children attended 3000 Sunday schools sponsored by the National Society.Anthony Armstrong, The Church of England, the Methodists and Society, 1700–1850 (1973) p. 181. By the late 19th century they reached as many as 75% of all children.Owen Chadwick, The Victorian Church: Part II 1860–1901 (1972 ) pp.257–259. By the 1850s about 300,000 adults were teaching in all the Sunday schools, as well as attending their own training programs, arranging guest speakers and planning treats such as excursions by train for the children. The movement peaked in the 1880s. After that growth of public schools lessened the educational role of Sunday schools.Doreen Rosman, The Evolution of the English Churches, 1500–2000.(Cambridge UP, 2003) p.213.
Liberal reforms 1908–1914
In 1906 the Liberal Party under Henry Campbell-Bannerman rallied Dissenting Protestants against the education bill (which helped the schools of the established Church of England), and rallied around the traditional platform of free trade. The result was a massive landslide and the greatest electoral victory in Liberal Party history.Lawrence Goldman, . "Oxford DNB theme: The general election of 1906" online
After a confused performance in 1906–1907 with few results, H. H. Asquith became prime minister in 1908 and shifted emphasis to new reform issues promoted by David Lloyd George as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Winston Churchill at the Board of Trade and as Home Secretary. Reformers focused on the "People's Budget" of 1909 that proposed to fund expanded social welfare programmes with new taxes on land and high incomes. It was blocked by the Conservative-dominated House of Lords, and led to a dramatic confrontation and two more elections in 1910. The Liberals prevailed and passed their main reforms.
Before 1906 the Liberals favored "freedom from", with minimal government regulation and taxes, as preached by William E. Gladstone. That now changed as half of the Liberal MPs elected in 1906 were supportive of the "new liberalism". It meant "freedom from" unhappy social and economic constraints. It advocated government action to improve people's lives.
Liberals in 1906–1911 passed major legislation designed to reform politics and society, such as the regulation of working hours, National Insurance and the beginnings of the welfare state, as well as curtailing the power of the House of Lords. Women's suffrage was not on the Liberal agenda.Ian Packer, Liberal government and politics, 1905–15 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). There were numerous major reforms helping labour, typified by the Trade Boards Act 1909 that set minimum wages in certain trades with the history of "sweated" or "sweatshop" rates of especially low wages, because of surplus of available workers, the presence of women workers, or the lack of skills.Sheila Blackburn, "Ideology and social policy: the origins of the Trade Boards Act." The Historical Journal 34#1 (1991): 43–64.
At first it applied to four industries: chain-making, ready-made tailoring, paper-box making, and the machine-made lace and finishing trade. It was later expanded to coal mining and then to other industries with preponderance of unskilled manual labour by the Trade Boards Act 1918. Under the leadership of Lloyd George Liberals extended minimum wages to farm workers.Alun Howkins and Nicola Verdon. "The state and the farm worker: the evolution of the minimum wage in agriculture in England and Wales, 1909–24." Agricultural history review 57.2 (2009): 257–274. online
Pension law
The "Old Age Pension" was introduced in 1909 in the United Kingdom (which included all of Ireland at that time). Following the passage of the Old Age Pensions Act 1908 a pension of 5/- per week (£, equivalent, using the Consumer Price Index, to £ in present-day terms), or 7/6 per week (£, equivalent to £/week today) for a married couple, was payable to persons with an income below £21 per annum (equivalent to £ today), The qualifying age was 70, and the pensions were subject to a means test.