How successful were the Liberals in promoting the welfare of the children, workers and the elderly in the years 1906-1914

How successful were the Liberals in promoting the welfare of the children, workers and the elderly in the years 1906-1914
24 marks
The Liberal party introduced many acts in 1906-1914 to promote the welfare of the children, workers and the elderly. Each of these acts showed they were trying to make a welfare state but each came with limitations.
The main act concerning the elderly was the Old Age Pension Act of 1908. It was established to provide a pension of five shillings per week for a single person and seven shillings and six pennies for a married couple. However, on the elderly over the age of 70, when the average life expectancy was 50 years old for a man and 54 years old for a woman and they also had to be amongst the poorest to receive the full amount. Pensioners also had to be of good character if they wanted to receive, they could never have been charged for or known to have committed a crime. These pensions, then, were rarely given and only covered the cost of the bare minimum for survival. While the Liberals may have been seen to be trying to promote welfare for the elderly they were not fulfilling their aim successfully.
The first of the Acts set up for the welfare of the workers was the Trade Boards Act 1909 which instigated the inspection of conditions in certain trades, effecting 200,000 workers who initially were mostly women. But this only covered the ‘sweated’ trades and ignored other workers such as farmers and on the whole there were very few inspections. So again while the Liberals were making some effort, the limitations of the act cancelled out the effects it was supposed to create.
The next for workers was the Labour Exchanges Act 1909. This was designed to help unemployed individuals to find work and at the same time help employers to find workers. Two million people had been helped by this act by 1914 as in an average day three thousand jobs were assigned. While this act did not create jobs, it merely helped people find work it was still very successful. It helped lower the unemployment rates in Britain dramatically. The Liberals were successful in promoting the welfare of workers through this particular act.
National Insurance Act 1911 came in two parts, one of which was the unemployment part. It encouraged employers and employees to contribute weekly to an insurance fund which would be the provision of money if a worker was unable to do their job at a certain time. It was a payment of seven shillings a week for fifteen weeks. However, it only applied to certain trades, particularly seasonal work such as ship building. Many workers weren’t covered and had to rely on their personal savings. The Liberals weren’t successful in promoting a welfare act through this part of the act as though it was a good idea it didn’t apply to enough workers.
The second part of the National Insurance Act was the health part. This was a scheme, again, that employers and employees would pay into a weekly fund. All workers who earned under £160 a year paid four pence a week into the scheme, the employer paid three pence and general taxation paid another two pence. This meant that workers could take sick leave and be paid ten shilling per week for the first thirteen weeks and five shillings a week for the next thirteen weeks. But this meant that anyone earning over £160 a year were not covered by the insurance. Also, the average working age was from sixteen to sixty years old, and old age pension would begin and aged seventy. This meant the workers would have a ten year gap of provision. The Liberals weren’t fully successful in promoting welfare for workers through this act as though it was again a very good and valid idea, it suffered from limitations.
An act to promote the welfare of children was the School Meals Act of 1906. This was introduced to help poor families and improve national efficiency. However, for it to be applied to schools permission was needed from the local authorities who could easily reject the plan for their area. The Liberals weren’t very successful in promoting the welfare of children through this act because it was not enforced so could easily be overturned by individual areas and be of no effect.
Another act for children was the Medical Inspection act in 1907. This meant that children would receive medical inspections at school but it had a great weakness – if a problem was found there was nothing enforcing the schools to do anything about it. The Liberals were not successful in promoting the welfare of children in reality through this act since it was not guaranteed, in fact unlikely, that even if a medical problem is detected through these inspections that they will receive any treatment.
Children’ Act 1908 was the Liberals last act promoting the welfare of children. It was the setting up of juvinial courts and introducing of foster parents. It gave local authorities the power to keep poor children out of the workhouse and also protect them from abuse. It prevented children from working in dangerous trades, buying cigarettes and entering pubs. To stop them from going to adult prisons it set up Borstals. These were all very positive outcomes; one limitation could be that the setting up of Borstals was more expensive than sending the children to adult prisons. On the whole, this act was very successful for the Liberals in promoting the welfare of the children.
In conclusion, if we were to judge from the intentions of the acts the Liberals established in the years 1906-1911 they would have been very successful in promoting the welfare of the children, workers and elderly. However, due to the majority of them holding huge limitations this was not possible. For example, if the Old Age Pension act had been given to those of the average age of retirement, 60, and had given more than the bare minimum for survival it would have been very successful.