Assess The Effectiveness Of The Liberal Reforms

During 1906-12 when the Liberal Party were in power started the Liberal Reforms, which were several programmes with the intent to help British citizens living in poverty. There is a debate amongst historians whether or not the Liberal Reforms were effective and helped the people living in poverty. The quote from the historian Martin Pugh suggests that the reforms were not introduced to create a welfare state but only focusing on solving specific problems that poor people have faced. There are other interpretations that further support Pugh’s interpretations and there are interpretations that go against Pugh’s interpretation.
There were acts of parliament that were trying to help the elderly and the main one was Old Age Pension in 1908 which
This shows that the elderly who did receive pensions were grateful and happy that they received pensions as the struggles they faced before getting received was solved to an extent and to further show their gratitude they also treated Flora by handing her flowers (Walsh, n.d.). The positive attitude the elderly had towards pensions showed how many people were suffering from poverty before the Liberal Reforms because the money that the elderly received was not much, however it did help them, and they felt that they were rich because of it (Walsh, n.d.). According to Walsh, that because of the Old Age Pension decreased the number of elderly people who were dependent to charity or workhouses dramatically. However, there was still thousands of elderlies who were dependent on workhouses as they were usually the ones who does not have family and the pensions were not enough for them to pay for basic needs (Walsh, n.d.). Another problem with the Old Age Pension was that it was expensive for the government, shown with a source that is from a government document which shows an estimate on how much pensions would
Wood points out that the act that provided poor children to have school meals was not successful when it was passed, and this is because it was not mandatory for the schools to provide the meals for those children and because of that there were many local authorities who made the decision to not provide meals (Wood, 2002). That choice was continuously made to the point where half of England and Wales went against that act (Wood, 2002). In 1914, the government decided to help pay for the cost to solve this problem as they realised that one of the main reasons why some authorities decided to not provide free school meals for the poor children was because how much it would cost for them (Wood, 2002). The main problems with this act is that it was hard to determine who should be provided with school meals, as there were some parents who would refuse to pay for the school meals and led to all children to get free meals (Wood, 2000). There is a source from Sir Arthur Clay which shows his argument for being against providing school meals for children and it is that it would teach the children how to not be responsible shown with the quote “… the evasion of responsibility which will never be forgotten” and it is beneficial for the parents as it will give them less self-reliance because the government would be providing for the child and not the parent