Brief History of Poverty in the UK

1. Unit 2: Poverty & Social Inequality
Deadline: W/C 13.01.14

2. Unit Assessment Criteria
1.1 Analyse different forms of social
stratification.
2.1 Outline and critically evaluate research
evidence relating to social inequality and
poverty.
3.1 Outline and critically evaluate different
explanations of social inequality and poverty.

3. Assignment Tasks
Task 1:
Research and complete a table on stratification
Task 2:
Write an essay (1250 words)
“Critically examine the different explanations
of social inequality and poverty, and analyse
research evidence relating to these issues.”

4. Assignment Tasks
• Both tasks are to be completed independently
• There are a range of websites with lots of data on
poverty to help you with research evidence:
• Joseph Rowntree Foundation www.jrf.org.uk
• Child Poverty Action Group www.cpag.org.uk
• The Poverty Site www.poverty.org.uk
• Office of National Statistics www.statistics.gov.uk

5. Session Learning Outcomes
Students...
• Must be able to outline features of the
historical, social and political context of
poverty
• Should be able to outline the theoretical
perspectives underpinning political
approaches
• Could be able to begin to evaluate the
different approaches to tackling poverty

6. What does poverty mean to
you?
• What are the first two words that come to
mind when you think of the term poverty?
• Write them down...

7. History of Poverty & the Welfare
State

8. Middle Ages
• During the time of Henry VIII there was a great fear
of social disorder following the Black Death.
• Questions of social control and social welfare
became intrinsically linked.
• In 1536 measures were introduced allowing parishes
to collect money for the poor

9. The Poor Law - 1601
• Fear of social disorder, brought
about by a large rise in the number
of vagrants The Poor Law Act of 1601
was introduced.
• The act classified the poor into either:
– The impotent poor (sick and aged)
– The able bodied poor (the unemployed)
who were put to work in workhouses
– The persistent idlers who were sent to
houses of correction.

10. Workhouses
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oseRfMFUXB4
• Consider the conditions people had to contend wit

11. 1834 Poor Law Amendment
• Conditions in the workhouses were to be
made worse than the lowest paid
employment, as a conscious effort to
discourage people from applying for help.
Despite this workhouse inmates rose
from 78500 in 1838 to 200,000 in 1843.

12. 1834 Poor Law Amendment
• A key aspect of the Act was that people
became poor through their own personal
deficiencies or laziness.
• The workhouses are one of the main sources
for the novels of Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

13. 1873-1896 – Economic Depression
• During the latter part of the 19th Century, the
economic depression of 1873-1896 led to a
realization that poverty was not necessarily
the individual’s fault.

14. Charles Booth & Seebohm Rowntree
• In the early 1900s two men
performed two very big and
important surveys on poverty in
London and York.
• Booth reported that the main
causes of poverty in London were
old age and unemployment
• Rowntree found 28% of the
population were poor due to low
wages.

15. WWI / 1930s depression
• World War 1 increased the role of the state in
the economy and the Great Depression
further eroded liberalism as there was mass
unemployment and hardship.

16. Beveridge Report
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lurGssKn7PA
• Andrew Mar Beveridge 7.00min

17. Beveridge Report 1942
• William Beveridge argued for a more rational
and comprehensive system to cure what he
termed the "Five Giant Evils“

18. 1. Squalor
Poor living conditions

19. 2. Ignorance:
• Those in higher classes were ignorant to the plight of
those below them. National Insurance Act was
introduced in 1946 to fix this.

20. 3. Want:
• Supply of basic needs & living conditions

21. 4. Idleness
• Job centre – everyone must work

22. Disease:
• Recognition that it was linked to financial trouble

23. Beveridge Report 1942
• This state intervention was to ensure that
everyone could live without fear of want and
guarantee a minimum standard of living for all
citizens.

24. Beveridge introduced:
– National Insurance – contributions from
employees and employers
– National Health Service – reduce illness and the
burden of claims due to illness and disability
– Family Allowances – to help those with low
wages, but also to boost the falling birth rate.

25. The Acts
•
•
•
•
Education Act 1944
Family Allowances Act 1945
National Health Service Act 1946
National Assistance Act 1948

26. Assumptions behind welfare
• The idea behind the system was that people would
make payments out of their wages and would in turn
receive payments when they were unemployed.
• It worked on the assumption that unemployment
would be fairly rare and short lived.
• Problems occur when demands on welfare outstrip
the contributions that people make.
• Influenced by John Maynard Keynes

27. 1979 – then came…
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=MZPqBNc4wmw

28. The New Right
• In 1979 the General Election brought in
the Conservative Government and this
saw the end of the commitment to full
employment.
• They stated that there was a natural
level of unemployment caused by wages
that were too high.
• They tried to drive down wages (unions)
and to drive down benefits.

29. The New Right
• Some of you have investigated The New Right
• Can you tell us what changes the
Conservative Government brought in the
1980s?

30. Conservative Party – 1980s
• Removed welfare grants and replaced with
repayable loans.
• Benefits removed for 16-18 year olds.
• Value of state pension reduced.
• Benefits not increased in line with inflation.
• ‘Right to buy’ council homes legislation was
introduced.
• Shift towards community care.

31. The New Right
• Emphasis on individual freedom – need to
reduce the power of the state to a minimum
• Reduced spending by the state – by making
individuals more self reliant by cutting
benefits and encouraging people to stand on
their own two feet

32. 1989 – Charles Murray
• Some of you have investigated Charles Murray
• Can you tell us what Charles Murray had to
say about poverty?

33. Charles Murray
• IN 1989 Charles Murray visited Britain in
search of the ‘underclass’, courtesy of The
Sunday Times. Four years later he returned to
warn that the crisis of the ‘underclass’ was
deepening.
Murray, C (1989) The Emerging Underclass. The Times Newspaper

34. Murray, C (1989) The
Emerging Underclass.
• “Women who have children outside marriage
are singled out as particularly worthy of
stigma, the erosion of which since the ‘sexual
revolution of the 1960s’, has contributed to
the increase in their numbers.”

35. Murray, C (1989) The
Emerging Underclass.
• The ‘underclass does not refer to degree of
poverty, but to a type of poverty.
• These poor people didn’t lack just money.
They were defined by their behaviour. Their
homes were littered and unkempt. The men in
the family were unable to hold a job for more
than a few weeks at a time.
Murray, C (1989) The Emerging Underclass. The Times Newspaper

36. Murray, C (1989) The
Emerging Underclass.
• Drunkenness was common. The children grew
up ill-schooled and ill-behaved and
contributed a disproportionate share of the
local juvenile delinquents.
• Does any of this sound familiar?

37. Criticisms – Hutton 1996
• Arguments to reduce welfare expenditure in a
time of austerity are based on false
assumptions and spurred by political ideology
rather by economic need.
• According to Hutton, apart from Iceland,
Britain runs the ‘…meanest, tightest, lowest
cost social security system in the in EU.’
OECD Organisation for
Economic Co-operation
and Development

38. Criticisms Witcher (1994)
• Challenged the myths that there is a need to
identify a distinction between the deserving
and undeserving poor.
• She argues that these myths have contributed
to a situation where it is possible to consider
cutting social security and that this is not
based on sound analysis.

39. 1997 – then came…
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaL8BN4Gr0U
• 8mins in

40. New Labour and Social
Inclusion
• The election of Labour in 1997 brought an end
to the dominance of the New Right.
• Their first task was to set up a unit to combat
‘social exclusion’
– This refers to the way some groups have been
marginalized through the action of government
and others.

41. Labour’s Approach to Welfare
• Focus on work and education
• Welfare to work e.g. Working Links

42. Conservative/Lib-Dem 2010
Create a mind-map on what has been the
coalition’s response to poverty and social
inequality?
Cameron’s response to Labour failure to cut
poverty.
•http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=GdeHXSbHb8c

43. Poverty Today
Poverty Quiz
•In groups of 3 complete the poverty quiz

44. Re-cap
• What have you learnt about views about
poverty in Britain?
• What have you learnt about the approaches
to tackling poverty?