Welfare state essay

Welfare state essay

THE WELFARE STATE: The role and significance of the Beveridge Report in establishing the Welfare State in Britain. The purpose of this essay is to look at the long history of the Welfare State in Britain and the evolving social, economic and political changes in society today, as well as the birth of the Welfare State after the Second World War which was the turning point (watershed) in British History Welfare State Essay The welfare state was an essentially European invention that spread and developed in the states of western Europe and some of their New World offshoots. What is today known as the welfare state, Sozialstaat, l’état providence, or folkhemmet was most aptly described by historian Asa Briggs in a article as a state The term ‘modern Welfare State’ comes from the Beveridge report of The words represent that Government provides a minimum level of taxed welfare support for citizens in need. Beveridge and his five giants showed a greater need for an active role by Government in the welfare of its citizens through better housing, education, benefits for the unemployed and an accessible National Health

The Welfare System - Words | Essay Example

This essay will argue to a small extent the classic Welfare State promotes a more egalitarian society. It is because cost and benefit were not often equally shared under the system, within different socio-economic groups SEGsthroughout the classic era For example, citizens pay the tax for the NHS, and the rich and the poor could receive the same level of treatment[3]. In this essay, egalitarianism is considered as each individual contributes the same weight of cost and they should acquire the same level welfare state essay benefit[4], welfare state essay.

However, in the classic era costs were not shared but carried mainly by the poor; meanwhile, the benefits were distributed unevenly between different SEGs. Despite the society as a whole were benefit from a higher standard of housing, people who are more affluent had benefited from a regressive tax level, further education, and better quality of healthcare treatment.

Taxation is the way in which government can influence individual welfare and it did not balance the cost to a significant extent throughout the Welfare state essay era[5] The income tax, as direct taxation, had become more regressive. A bachelor could have retained £ in his £10, earned in ; by£ can be retained[7]. Thus, the redistribution from the rich to the poor was not substantial comparing the beginning and the end of the classic era[8].

In contrast, the government revenue became more reliant on the poor, partly because of inflation. Even a married worker with two children was liable to tax in mids [9] and they suffered from the highest marginal rate of taxation [10].

Here we might see that direct taxation had been eroded by the more regressive base. The rich, for example, the managers could enjoy various subsidies. They were increasingly benefiting from, for instance, free medical insurance, use of company car, and top hat pension [12]. Moreover, welfare state essay, during the s the national pension might no longer be supported by flat-rate contributions.

Thus the Labour party developed a new pension scheme that featured earnings-related benefits[13]. However, according to Halsey, wealth inequality was actually decreased between and by taxes when taking the Gini coefficient welfare state essay accounts.

We might argue that the regressive taxation led to an uneven share of cost in short term; on the other hand, the gap was actually closing in a very gradual manner.

To evaluate how egalitarian society was achieved, we might consider the quantity and quality of housing available to different SEGs. For the poor who need to rent out, the Conservative government had set and achieved the goal of buildingcouncil housing per year in and [16]. Between andthere was an welfare state essay ofpublic houses being built every year[17].

On the other hand, welfare state essay, housing had switched to high-rise towers rather than council housing. This might be seen as a tradeoff of welfare state essay for quantity. Surprisingly, welfare state essay, the overall standards of amenities such as WC in-house did undergo an increase, despite property owner could enjoy consistently higher than household which rent from a private person[20].

Interpretation behind this could be both the working and the middle class were taking advantage of the state intervention; while perhaps those living in the tower suffer more.

The state did relieved people from squalor to some extent. However, there was a fluctuation to the extent of a shared benefit. Pressures were put by the Conservatives on local authorities to raise rents, which affected the low-income most [21]. Also, the government actively encouraged people to be a property-owner [22] thus the tax relief granted in this respect had reached £ million which was about £ million more than subsidizing social housing [23]. Tax relief to property owners such as the Schedule A tax had benefited the richest landlord to a substantial proportion [24].

Although the poor had taken up more of the subsidies for council tenants than the rich, the higher income group had substantially owned more properties thus acquired considerable granting on this respect as well [26].

Thus this essay argues that under the welfare state, welfare state essay, every class could enjoy benefits to some extent so everyone was the winner. This did promote a more egalitarian society. However, both health and healthcare were unable to be distributed equally from the NHS but largely benefiting the rich. Whereas the patients from lower SEGs tend to receive a lower level and less frequent consultation or treatment despite their demand was higher in certain aspects, for instance, hip replacement[29].

Furthermore, infant mortality and stillbirth rate of lowest SEG was the highest[30]. The HNS expenditure per unit of need is rather unequal. However, this essay had argued that the rich were taking advantage of a longer consultation time as well as the standard of treatment. To sum up, the better-off had obtained more benefits, including health and healthcare from the system. However, the opportunity of pupils from the higher social class was greater than their fellow students, welfare state essay.

Apart from the examination, parental factors also played a part. As working-class families might not recognize the benefit behind further education, while perhaps the father did not receive much, so the money forgone from being hired might be perceived as more costly than continuing education[38], welfare state essay.

Moreover, the resource available for children was significantly unequal. According to Hart et al, there was a positive relationship between the number of books at home and income[39]. As a result, the working-class found it hard to move upward in the social ladder, welfare state essay, and the situation had actually worsened in the classic era [40].

It was not hard to argue that the benefit for education welfare state essay mainly occupied and consolidated only by the better-off. Considering welfare state essay used, the higher SEGs had acquired more resources in higher education. It might because of the higher possibility for a high social class pupil to enjoy university life than a working class [44]. Although the imbalance in the input of expenditure did not create a more egalitarian society, welfare state essay, it welfare state essay notable that there is no controversy here to put more resources on those who might be the future professional and help sustain the welfare state essay prosper.

The poor pupils did benefit from the state in early school age, and the data from the s suggested welfare state essay unchanged inequality among the social class. To conclude, to a large extent welfare state essay British welfare state in did not create a more egalitarian society. This was because the cost and benefits of the welfare state were not equally shared among different socio-economic-groups. The wealthier and higher SEGs could have enjoyed a lower responsibility in contributing to the state by an increasingly regressive tax base; as well as taking advantage of higher levels of healthcare and health and further education.

In general, everyone perhaps was benefited from the state in housing, welfare state essay, as public housing and the private market had both received certain grants and help.

This essay had argued that an egalitarian society could not be achieved by a base built on over-dependence and exploitation of the poor. However, the essay welfare state essay only discussed the issue on very few topics, further research on pension or transportation could be done.

Also, the previous argument is mainly focused on wealth and its relationship to equality, the argument on gender or race could help to broaden the discussion into different respect.

Fraser, D. Greener, I. Halsey A. Halsey, A. Harrison, R. ArchaeologiesVol. Hart, welfare state essay, R. and Roberts, J. Hill, M, welfare state essay. Jenkin, P. Le Grand, J. Giddens and P. Diamond, edsThe New EgalitarianismLondon: Policy Network. Lowe, R. Malpass, P. London: Routledge. and Propper, C.

Floud, J. Humphries and P. Johnson, eds. Sinfield, A, welfare state essay. Bean and D. Whynes edsBarbara Wootton: social science and public policy: essays in her honourLondon: Tavistock, welfare state essay, p Titmuss, welfare state essay, R. Tutor and Freelance Writer. Science Teacher and Lover of Essays. Article last reviewed: St. Rosemary Institution © Creative Commons 4. Skip to content. Appeasement of Hitler. Physical and Chemical Properties.

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Welfare State Essay | Cram

24/11/ · HISTORY OF THE WELFARE STATE: The role and significance of the Beveridge Report in establishing the Welfare State in Britain. The purpose of this essay is to look at the long history of the Welfare State in Britain and the evolving social, economic and political changes in society today, as well as the birth of the Welfare State after the Second World War which was the turning Welfare State Essay The welfare state was an essentially European invention that spread and developed in the states of western Europe and some of their New World offshoots. What is today known as the welfare state, Sozialstaat, l’état providence, or folkhemmet was most aptly described by historian Asa Briggs in a article as a state Essay On Welfare States. A welfare state is defined as: “a system whereby the government undertakes to protect the health and well-being of its citizens, especially those in financial or social need, by means of grants, pensions, and other benefits.”