What is the importance of the uk welfare state?, what would we do without it?

Question

What is the importance of the uk welfare state?, what would we do without it?

Answer 1

What Loo said - The welfare state was an ideal to remove poverty from this country from cradle to grave - this meant that working people paid taxes to provide for older people and their pensions.

What went wrong was that the figures were based on 1942 population and nobody thought of growth in the population or advances in medicine and science that meant that older people live longer and therefore need more care.  In 1942 the average age of an older person was 72 - now its 89.  Couple this now with the lower birth rates now means that there are not enough working people to pay taxes to provide the costs of pensions - the reason why we all need to purchase private pension schemes.

The introduction of the NHS was seen as the envy of the world for the first ten years which did see a major improvement in the countries health care and the social house boom in the 40s saw more people adequately housed and so poverty was not so extreme. Again due to population explosions and the baby boom in the 40s who are all now pensionable age we are almost back to the same senario of the early 40s.

Maybe time for another beveridge report!

Answer 2

If there was no welfare state, then all the lazy bas*ards would have to get out of bed , put there joints down, and get a job..

Answer 3

"The Welfare State of the United Kingdom was prefigured in the William Beveridge Report in 1942, which identified five "Giant Evils" in society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness and disease.

A series of changes were put in place... to deal with these Evils after the Second World War. The changes meant that the government undertook measures... to provide for the people of the United Kingdom "from the cradle to the grave."

This policy resulted in massive expenditure and a great widening of what was considered to be the state's responsibility. In addition to the central services of Education, Health, Unemployment and sickness allowances and so on, the welfare state included the idea of increasing redistributive taxation, increasing regulation of industry food and housing.

The Welfare State was a commitment to health (in 1948 the National Health Service was created), education, employment and social security."   ref.   Wikipedia

I'd say that these ideals, and the consequent implementing of them was pretty important.  Not a perfect system by any means, but responsible for the improved health and well being of a nation.

What would we do without the welfare state?  probably what they do in the good ol' u.s. of a., the land of the free for those with the money.

Answer 4

Without the welfare state the lesser able members of society would be forced to live in extreem conditions.  They would possibly not be able to afford basic things that we take for granted, such as medical treatment, or education.

in short the country would evole into a true capitalist society, where you would have to pay for everything.  the rich would get richer and the poor would get poorer, as the rich would be the only ones able to afford a decent education, and therefore be the only ones who would be educated to the standard required to obtain highly paid careers.

The poor would be forced to work in meanial low paid jobs from a young age, where there would be no chance of advancement or escape from their situation.  Woe betide them if they were to be ill, as the medical care they would need would be well out of their price range, the poor could even possibly die from easily treatable diseases such as measles, or flu.

So depending on your point of view of the class divide and whether you want to widen it or not, it is important to either have or not have the welfare state.

Answer 5

To assist the immigrants.

Answer 6

extremely important.

it's the difference between starving/poverty or state assistance & survive.

but since I read recently the UK Social Fund has enabled 5 generations of one family to live quite happily,

every bread-winner, in perfect health have/has never worked or bothered to find paid employment.

they've never needed to.

THE STATE WILL PROVIDE!

So as with most generous socially caring ideas, it's abused to the hilt!

Answer 7

The welfare state is the easiest way to getting paid to do nothing,,or in some cases a top up for wages...the trully needy seem to be the ones who are hounded..without it people would have to get jobs or at least sell their skills..