Abstract
Together with the maintenance of full employment, the provision of social security was the principal objective of both the Beveridge Report and the postwar Labour government. The concept of social security was novel to Britain in the 1940s — having been first formally acknowledged in the 1941 Atlantic Charter — and it means, in essence, the guarantee by government to all its citizens of an income sufficient to ensure an agreed minimum standard of living. In the 1940s, the realisation of this guarantee depended largely on the expansion of various interwar insurance schemes; but, as argued in Chapter 2.1, the nature of these schemes was fundamentally changed by their being extended to the whole population, to cover all risks to an individual’s income and to provide — in theory at least — subsistence-level benefits.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Further Reading
There are no good, comprehensive studies of postwar social security. The best introductions are the historical chapters in general texts, in contemporary poverty surveys and in later attempts to reform the system. Amongst the first, the best is perhaps P. Alcock, Poverty and State Support (1987). The two outstanding contemporary surveys, from the full list provided in Note 30 of this chapter, are the forbiddingly entitled
A. B. Atkinson, Poverty in Britain and the Reform of Social Security (Cambridge 1970) and
G. C. Fiegehen et al., Poverty and Progress in Britain, 1953–73 (Cambridge, 1977). The contemporary mood is also well evoked by
D. Bull (ed.), Family Poverty (1971) and
K. G. Banting, Poverty, Politics and Policy (1979). Of the latter books, the most rewarding are
R. Berthoud et al., Poverty and the Development of Anti-Poverty Policy in the United Kingdom (1981) and
A. W. Dilnot et al., The Reform of Social Security (Oxford, 1984).
On particular topics, the Beveridge Report is well served by a magisterial biography, J. Harris, William Beveridge (Oxford, 1977) and by
K. and J. Williams A Beveridge Reader (1987). There is also a shrewd review of the report’s long-term impact in
J. Harris, ‘Enterprise and Welfare States: a comparative perspective’, in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 40 (1990) 175–95. Legislative changes to social insurance are covered exhaustively, in an international context and with a few telling insights, in
P. A. Kohler and H. F. Zacher, The Evolution of Social Insurance, 1881–1981 (1982). Means-tested benefit is particularly well covered by
A. Deacon and J. Bradshaw, Reserved for the Poor (1983) and the reflections of an erstwhile chairman of the Supplementary Benefits Commission,
D. Donnison, The Politics of Poverty (1982). A comprehensive, if partial, history of postwar pensions is provided by
E. Shragge, Pensions Policy in Britain: a socialist analysis (1984), whilst
L. Hannah, Inventing Retirement: the development of occupational benefits in Britain (Cambridge, 1986) is one of those few academic books which one wishes were longer.
Contemporary poverty surveys are of course valuable in their own right. Particularly stimulating are the very short B. S. Rowntree and G. R. Lavers, Poverty and the Welfare State (1951); the more technical
B. Abel-Smith and P. Townsend, The Poor and the Poorest (1965); the more impressionistic study of Nottingham in 1966–7,
K. Coates and R. Silbourn, Poverty: the Forgotten Englishmen (1970); and the exhaustive 1968–9 survey,
P. Townsend, Poverty in the United Kingdom (Harmondsworth, 1979). Predominant amongst contemporary texts, however, is the Beveridge Report itself (Cmd 6404, 1942). Its length and its close, if sometimes inconsistent, reasoning can be forbidding, but it provides effective summaries of its main proposals (paras 1–40), the insurance principle (272–99), its main principles (303–9) and its three assumptions (410–43). Particular problems are also summarised in relation to women (107–17, 339–48) and both rent and old age (193–264). There is a preemptive strike against its critics (444–61) and there is also an extremely helpful summary of international practice (appendix F).
Copyright information
© 1993 Rodney Lowe
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lowe, R. (1993). Social Security. In: The Welfare State in Britain since 1945. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22549-1_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22549-1_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-44256-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-22549-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)