History - Liberal Reforms

Front 1

What were the problems facing the working class before the Liberal Reforms were introduced?

Back 1

- poor housing
- illness and accidents
- old age
- low wages
- irregular work

Front 2

Explain the problems faced by the working class before the Liberal Reforms were introduced

Back 2

poor housing - families are cramped, getting ill from damp and dirt etc
illness and accidents - couldn't afford doctors/medicine/healthcare, accidents at work not paid for - no compensation
old age - no pensions, too old to work, become burdens on their children, have to rely on their families
low wages - don't cover living costs - rent, bills, food, clothes can't afford medicine
irregular work - low pay anyway and irregular work means no-one can plan for the future and know if things can be afforded

Front 3

Why else was help for the poor needed in 1900?

Back 3

- horrible living conditions - sewage, filth, rotten staircases, horrible stench, walls and ceilings black
- children forced to leave school and go to work in cramped conditions, so poor are starved, not allowed to talk, not much light
- no money to spend on bus fares/newspapers/concert tickets/can't write letters to absent children because of postage fee/no luxuries
- people can't afford clothes

Front 4

What positive changes happened in 1900?

Back 4

- working conditions improved in factories, etc
- piped water to most houses
- all children went to school
- wages had risen
- all males had the right to vote

Front 5

Name the 3 social reformers

Back 5

John Galt
Seebohm Rowntree
Charles Booth

Front 6

Describe the life and work of John Galt

Back 6

- born in elgin, Morayshire, 1863
- After school, he was apprenticed to a local draper.
- A few years later, he moved to London, where he worked in the profitable West End textile industry.
- methods were taking photos of the poor working hard and compiling them into glass lantern slides which illustrated his talks and lectures
- worked as a Christian missionary and approached churches for donations
- made extensive notes and manuscripts
- findings were of social conditions and home works in the east end
- found out about people working long hours in dangerous conditions with unpredictable work
- main mission was to raise awareness

Front 7

Describe the life and work of Charles Booth

Back 7

- born 1840 into a wealthy liverpudlian ship-owning family
- decided to go to London to find out about poverty
- 17 year investigation over poverty in London
- researched 4000 people and had meetings every week
- found that 31% of Londoners living in poverty - no money for food, clothes, a home, nothing

Front 8

Describe the life and work of Seebohm Rowntree

Back 8

- born in 1871, York
- founder of Rowntree's chocolate group, treated workers well, interested by Charles Booth's findings and wanted to know whether it was the same in York
- created the poverty line
- found that a family of 5 could live on 21s and 8d a week and that 28% of York was therefore in poverty

Front 9

Explain the poverty line

Back 9

- Below the line - in desperate need of help
- on the line - can just scrape by
- above the line - can afford a small luxury every now and then

Front 10

What was the attitude of the rich towards the poor in the 1900's?

Back 10

that the poor were lazy
if you were poor you obviously hadn't worked hard enough

Front 11

What are the 8 reasons that the Liberals introduced welfare reforms?

Back 11

- attitudes towards poverty changed
- more people below the poverty line- increasing in scale
- reputation of the country - competition with Germany
- David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill
- Boer War 1899-1902
- Political reasons - competing with other parties
- more info about the effects of poverty
- social reformers

Front 12

Explain why the attitudes towards poverty changing made the liberals introduce welfare reforms

Back 12

- people started to realise that the poor weren't always to blame for their poverty
- accepted idea of reforms that helped the poor

Front 13

Explain why more people being below the poverty line and it increasing in scale made the liberals introduce welfare reforms

Back 13

- obvious that more and more people getting poorer
- poverty line clearly illustrates how many people struggling and how little money they had to survive on
- people knew that help was needed as the scale of it was so big

Front 14

explain why the reputation of the country and competition with Germany made the liberals introduce welfare reforms

Back 14

- Germanys economy doing better - England needed to compete
- Germany had a welfare system so their workforce was more effective
- this encouraged Britain to do the same so they could catch up and take over Britain's economy

Front 15

Explain why David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill made the liberals introduce welfare reforms

Back 15

- both men a type of 'new liberalist' encouraged the party to promote an active government who would help the poor
- Lloyd George friends with Rowntree, came from a fairly poor background himself so sympathised and understood what It was like to be poor, disliked the upper class domination of society, along with rowntree's findings encouraged his party to help the poor
- Winston Churchill moved from the conservatives to the liberals when the liberals started their welfare reforms - important politician, influential, wanted to help the poor

Front 16

Explain why the Boer War (1899-1902) made the liberals introduce welfare reforms

Back 16

- soldiers needed to fight in south Africa but half of the volunteers were declared unfit to fight because they were starved and hadn't grown properly in childhood
- shocked the government into doing something - if they didn't the whole country would suffer especially if a more serious war arose
- country needed to be protected so the government needed to look after the people properly

Front 17

Explain why political reasons and competition with other parties made the liberals introduce welfare reforms

Back 17

- need to help the poor so great that if the liberals didn't try to introduce reforms then another party would
- needed to keep the vote with them so needed to convince the poor and working classes that they would introduce reforms to help them

Front 18

Explain why did having more info about the effects of poverty make the liberals introduce welfare reforms

Back 18

- more widely known from the social reformer's work that the effects of poverty were terrible
- when more info was gathered it was fully understood how bad conditions were and what the best ways to help were - obvious help was necessary

Front 19

Explain why the social reformers made the liberals introduce welfare reforms

Back 19

- due to the work and findings of John Galt, Seebohm Rowntree and Charles Booth (3 main social reformers) more and more people realised how horrible conditions were that the poor had to live with
- reformer's work seen by a wide audience and since they were reliable middle class people Britain realised that the poor weren't lazy and that they needed help

Front 20

List the nationalistic, moral and social factors of why the liberals introduced welfare reforms

Back 20

- Winston Churchill
- The Unemployed Workman's Act
- Rise of Socialism
- Lloyd George
- Rivalry with Germany
- Seebohm Rowntree
- The Boer War
- Working Class Voters
- Landslide Election Victory 1906

Front 21

Explain why the Unemployed Workman's Act made the liberals introduce welfare reforms

Back 21

- the act was introduced by the conservatives to help fight unemployment
- could have been a vote winner amongst the poor
- liberals needed to win the vote and compete so needed to bring in policies of their own

Front 22

Explain why the Rise of Socialism made the liberals introduce welfare reforms

Back 22

- if the working classes were fitter, healthier and happier then they were less likely to turn to socialism and vote for the labour party
- labour party promised pensions, unemployment benefits and better education
- liberals needed to deter socialists by introducing their own policies to win the vote

Front 23

Explain why Working Class Voters made the liberals introduce welfare reforms

Back 23

- people are more likely to vote for a party that promises to do things to help them
- most working class men could vote in elections by 1906
- liberals needed to win the vote so introduced reforms to please the working class men

Front 24

Explain why the Landslide Election Victory 1906 made the liberals introduce welfare reforms

Back 24

- with lots of MPs in power the liberal party would find it easier to pass social reforms
- to keep the landslide victory going the liberals needed to make sure reforms were passed and with more seats in parliament this is a lot easier

Front 25

What are the political factors that made the liberals introduce welfare reforms?

Back 25

- Unemployed Workman's Act
- Rise of Socialism
- Working Class Voters
- Landslide Election Victory 1906

Front 26

What were the moral factors that made the liberals introduce welfare reforms?

Back 26

- Winston Churchill
- Lloyd George
- Seebohm Rowntree

Front 27

What were the nationalistic factors that made the liberals introduce welfare reforms?

Back 27

- Rivalry with Germany
- The Boer War

Front 28

What were the moral, political and nationalistic factors that made the liberals introduce welfare reforms?

Back 28

- Rivalry with Germany
- The Boer War

Front 29

What did the liberals do to help children?

Back 29

- Education Act (1906) - allowed local councils to provide free meals but weren't forced - but by 1914 158,00 had free meals every day
- 1907 - forced to provide school medical services - had to provide check-ups but not treatment until 1912
- School Clinics 1912 - network of school clinics set up for the treatment of children whose parents couldn't pay for it
- 1908 - Children and Young Persons Act

Front 30

What did the Children and Young Persons Act of 1908 include?

Back 30

- juvenile courts set up
- children became protected persons so parents could be prosecuted for cruelty, abuse and neglect
- children under 14 no longer sent to adult prisons
- illegal to sell tobacco to under 16s
- children under 14 not allowed to go into pubs
- poor law authorities responsible for monitoring of children suffering cruelty, abuse and neglect
- Borstals set up

Front 31

What did the liberals do to help old people?

Back 31

- Pensions Act 1908
- introduced an old age state pension (government funded
- 5s per week for single people
- 7s 6d for married couples, but later increased to 10s
- anyone who had an income of over £31 didn't qualify
- had to have lived in Britain for the last 20 years and be a citizen
- scheme open to people over 70
- pension refused if you hadn't worked at all or if you hadn't worked to the best of your ability
- widows unable to claim pensions
- 650,000 people claimed a pension in the first year

Front 32

What did the liberals do to help the sick?

Back 32

- National Insurance Act 1911
- Workers paid in 4d, Employers paid in 3d and the Government paid in 2d
- compulsory for all men earning under £160 a year
- the worker (when ill and unable to work) received 10s for 13 weeks and 5d for 10 weeks
- free medical care and treatment - but this didn't extend to families
- friendly societies already existed for richer workers - paying into a pot in case of illness

Front 33

What did the liberals do to help the under-employed and unemployed?

Back 33

- National Insurance Act 1912
- Workers, Employers and the Government paid in 2d each
- the worker received 7s 6d per week for up to 15 weeks in any year
- some benefits only temporary and 7s 6d was below the figure of £1 that a family needed per week
- open mainly to workers (mainly men) who were affected by seasonal labour and work and seasonal unemployment
Labour Exchange Act 1909
- provided somewhere formal for employers to advertise jobs and for workers to look to go and find a job - centralised place to look for jobs
- although most of the jobs were temporary or part-time

Front 34

What would the 1909 budget cost?

Back 34

£16 million - £900 billion in today's money