The Welfare State in the United Kingdom - Essay Example

The Welfare in the United Kingdom The government is obliged to ensure the wellbeing of people in the welfare The is required to protect its citizens from poverty, by providing unemployment benefits, family allowances, and additional income supplements for people with lower income and pensions to the elderly. It is also required to provide health care facilities, comprehensive medical care, childcare, housing arrangements and free education. The government obtains funding for these welfare measures through taxes and insurance schemes (Welfare state , 2006). Capitalism is based on the principle that the government should not interfere in economic matters. Laissez-faire capitalism stresses that economic issues fall under its domain and that the government should not intervene in these issues. In order to counter this dominance, the welfare state plays a key role. The laissez-faire economy is unconcerned with the welfare of the poor and the unemployed. It was this reason, which made the governments of the Western nations to promote a number of welfare and aid programmes during the Great Depression. In that period a majority of citizens, in those nations, had been facing financial hardship and living in very poor conditions (Welfare State , 2001). The Labour government implemented a comprehensive welfare system in the United Kingdom. This effort was mainly concentrated in the period 1945 to 1951. In the year 1948, the National Health Service or the NHS Act 1946 was enacted. This act was instrumental in introducing a publicly administered health care system in the UK (Weisser & Kishlansky, 2007). Since 1979, the UK government was remarkably reluctant to allocate funds for welfare measures. This resulted in the poor performance of welfare programmes. However, the voluntary organizations came to the rescue and have enabled these programmes to run effectively. Nevertheless, the projected targets could not be reached, which resulted in the improper distribution of resources. As a result, the people belonging to the middle classes could not receive proper welfare and education (Welfare state , 2006). The New Labour government modified welfare to make it compatible with the market forces. This government has been very successful in mustering the work force. It has increased the employment opportunities for women employees. At the same time it has managed to drastically bring down the poverty level. Nevertheless, it has faced major problems, with regard to the private welfare providers. The New Labour has found it quite difficult to either control or motivate these welfare providers. It has also met with mixed success in respect of achieving the market goals, ensuring sufficient income for everyone and providing adequate motivation to citizens to work (Taylor - Gooby, Larsen, & Kananen, November 19, 2004). The taxpayer has to support welfare services in the UK. They have been designed, in order to provide security to all the citizens, throughout their lifetime. Local authorities are required to help the needy, and the moneys for such activity are provided by the central government. In addition, employers and employees in the UK have to make a weekly contribution towards this effort (Weisser & Kishlansky, 2007). In nineteenth century Britain, welfare was the preserve of voluntary organizations. Some support was lent to this effort by the government in 1906, with the introduction of old age pension. In 1911, unemployment insurance was implemented in the UK. The Liberal government was at pains to ensure that these new welfare measures did not increase taxes or impose any new levies on the public. The Prime Minister, Lloyd George, employed the insurance principle to this area of welfare, by obtaining the required funds from the employer, worker and taxpayer (Field, 1999). A major drawback with the welfare system is that there has been a vast change in the circumstances, due to which it had been instituted in the first place. When it had come into force, there had been no unemployment and the earning member in many families had been the male. Over a period of time, the number of female employees and single parent homes, increased. This had the effect of imposing additional burden and new risks on the welfare system (Giddens, 2006. Pp. 374 – 379 ). The welfare state was deemed to be very costly, unproductive and ridden with complicated procedures; by the year 1970. Some people had to rely solely on these welfare measures. Accordingly, it was felt that there was something drastically wrong, because these measures had been intended to make the people independent. The Thatcher government responded by trying to demolish the welfare state; by transferring the responsibility for social welfare to local communities, the voluntary and private sectors. The process of deinstitutionalization was aimed at achieving this objective (Giddens, 2006. Pp. 374 – 379 ). The New Labour is desirous of reforming welfare. To this end it is trying to convince the public that it mutual responsibilities are superior to individual rights. The government’s objective is to increase the market participation by labour, while attaching much less importance to making available state benefits. The message being conveyed by New Labour is that the citizens have to avail themselves of the opportunities provided by the government. (Dwyer, 2004. P. 73). In a report on the British social services, in 1937, it was disclosed that overlapping of the roles of the bodies participating in welfare policy had brought about a haphazard development. This did not help the policy to develop properly. World War II had the effect of uncovering the defects in welfare and resulted in the determination to reduce them. After the war, quite some pressure was brought to bear on the government, which made the latter attach importance to welfare measures. The recommendations of Keynes and Beveridge were adopted by Labour. Some of the important measures in them were to provide employment for all; implementation of social security and a national health service. It was also determined to implement the 1944 Education Act. These measures brought in full employment, in the period 1945 to 1951. (Digby, 1989. Pp. 54-61). The implementation of the principle of insurance had a major bearing on the growth of social policy. In the beginning of the twentieth century several attempts were made to reduce unemployment by providing subsidized work on a small time basis (Hill, 2003. P. 20). The principles that had led to the welfare state in the 1940’s were eroded and the 1990’s welfare state was characterized by a number of new principles. Some of these new principles have been set in the sequel. Adoption, in service provision of the safety net approach; severe reduction in the delivery of welfare services by the state; support for private insurance; motivating people to create personal wealth; making payments by results. Various policies of this period, showed a preference for awarding productivity bonus to recognize and reward hard work (Lovell & Cordeaux, 2000. Pp. 2 - 14). It is very much possible that what individuals prefer, could have been transformed by the welfare state. Responsibility and initiative are reduced significantly, because of the excessive protection accorded to some groups of people. In addition, the growth of the welfare state is severely affected by a reduction in the growth of the economy. It is also affected by public finance being subjected to pressure. These events may be unrelated to the welfare state’s progress; all the same their effect is to bring about a partial reduction in expenditure. It has to be remembered, that the various studies into the relation between growth and unemployment and the welfare state is of the recent past (Pestieau, 2006. P. 77). The effect of any initiative of the government on the public is a result of its interpretation and enactment. The latest changes in the welfare measures of the UK, resulted in new ways of implementing the policies. These measures created organizations that were much more flexible, in comparison to the existing bureaucratic set up. They also instituted new types of partnership. The outcome of these measures is that the government is no longer the sole implementer of policies, and there are other participants who also implement these policies. List of References Digby, A. (1989. Pp. 54-61). British Welfare Policy. Faber. ISBN: 0571146635. Dwyer, P. (2004. P. 73). Understanding Social Citizenship: Themes and Perspectives for Policy. The Policy Press. ISBN: 1861344155. Field, F. (1999, August 8). The Welfare State - Never Ending Reform. Retrieved March 5, 2008, from bbc.co.uk: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/field_02.shtml Giddens, A. (2006. Pp. 374 – 379 ). Sociology. Polity. ISBN: 0745633781. Hill, M. J. (2003. P. 20). Understanding Social Policy. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN: 1405100575. Lovell, T., & Cordeaux, C. (2000. Pp. 2 - 14). Social Policy for Health and Social Care. Hodder & Stoughton. Pestieau, P. (2006. P. 77). The Welfare State in the European Union: Economic and Social. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 0199261016. Taylor - Gooby, P., Larsen, T., & Kananen, J. (November 19, 2004). Market Means and Welfare Ends: The UK Welfare State Experiment. Journal of Social Policy , Vol. 33, Pp. 573 - 592. Weisser, H. G., & Kishlansky, M. (2007). United Kingdom. Microsoft® Student 2008 [DVD] . Redmond, WA : Microsoft Corporation. Welfare state . (2006). Retrieved March 05 , 2008, from The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology: http://www.credoreference.com/entry/6894608 Welfare State . (2001). Retrieved March 05 , 2008, from World of Sociology, Gale: http://www.credoreference.com/entry/4786011 Read More