The document discusses how William Beveridge identified five "giants" - poverty, disease, ignorance, squalor, and idleness - that needed to be tackled to improve life in Britain after World War 2. He proposed establishing a welfare state to provide social security, healthcare, education, housing, and full employment. The Labour government attempted to address these issues through acts establishing national insurance, the NHS, expanding education, building council housing, and nationalizing industries. However, these reforms still faced limitations, as demand for services outstripped provision, and many social issues remained.

1. The Five Giants & the
creation of the Welfare
State
We will investigate:
1. The five evil giants and how the
Labour Government attempted to
tackle them.
2. How successful the Government was in
eliminating the five Giant evils which
plagued Britain.

2. The Welfare State
• After the war, which highlighted
that so many people were
deprived and poor, the Liberal
politician William Beveridge
identified five issues that
needed to be tackled to make a
better Britain.
• To achieve his aims, Beveridge
proposed the introduction of a
welfare state.

3. The proposal for a welfare state
• In 1942, the Liberal politician William Beveridge, who
the government set the task of discovering what kind
of Britain people wanted to see after the war,
declared that there were five "giants on the road to
reconstruction":
• poverty
• disease
• ignorance
• squalor
• idleness
• To defeat these giants, he proposed setting up a
welfare state with social security, a national health
service, free education, council housing and full
employment.
• In the years after the war, the Labour government
tried to make this vision come true.

4. The Five Giants
Beveridge slaying the 5 G’s

5. WANT – Social Security
• Family Allowances Act (1945) - 5s a
week for each child after the first.
• National Insurance Act (1945) -
unemployment pay for six months
and sick pay for as long as you were
sick.
• National Insurance - Industrial
Injuries Act (1946) - extra
benefits for people injured at work.
• National Assistance Act (1948) -
benefits for anybody in need. 'The
Times' described it as: 'the last
defence against extreme poverty'.

6. Limitations?
• Limitations of the National Insurance Act 1946:
– a large number of officials were needed to operate the
scheme.
– it did not provide for those members of society who were not
in work and had not made contributions.
• Limitations of the Industrial Injuries Act 1946:
– compensation was paid by the Government not employers - this
meant that the Government footed the bill for injuries at
work.
• Limitations of the National Assistance Act 1948:
– it was means-tested - the financial assistance received
depended on the amount of money/valuables a family/individual
possessed.
– many of the elderly were reluctant to apply for assistance,
believing there was a stigma attached to it.

7. DISEASE – The NHS
• National Health Service Act
(1948) - despite opposition
from doctors, who insisted on
the right to continue treating
some patients privately,
Aneurin Bevan brought in the
NHS on 5 July 1948.
• Doctors, hospital, dentists,
opticians, ambulances,
midwives and health visitors
were available, free to
everybody.

8. Limitations?
• The limitations of the NHS
were:
– Prescriptions rose from 7
million per month before the
NHS to 13.5 million per month
in September 1948.
– By 1950 the NHS was costing
£358 million per year.
– The Government had to
backtrack on its principle of a
free service, by introducing
charges for spectacles and
dental treatment.

9. IGNORANCE - Education
• 1944 Education Act - 'Rab'
Butler set the school-leaving
age at 15, and introduced free
secondary schools.
• Pupils took an '11-plus' IQ
test that determined whether
they went to grammar school
(for academic pupils), secondary
modern school (teaching
practical subjects), or technical
school (to teach practical skills).

10. Limitations?
• The limitations of this
were:
– Little had been done to
enhance the
opportunities for
working class children,
most of whom left
school at 15 with little
or no paper
qualifications.
– The Labour government
did little for the
educational welfare of
the working class.

11. SQUALOR - Housing
• Town and Country Planning
Act (1947) - set a target of
building 300,000 new houses a
year and 1.25 million council
houses were built between
1945 and 1951. It also defined
green belt land that had to be
kept rural.
• New Towns Act (1946) -
authorised the building of new
towns at places such as
Livingston and East Kilbride.

12. • The limitations of this
were:
– The 1951 census
revealed that there
was approximately the
same level of
homelessness as in
1931.
– High demand for
housing still existed.
Limitations?

13. IDELNESS – Full Employment
• Marshall Aid (1948) - the
government used Marshall Aid
to get industry going.
• The government nationalised
the road haulage, railways and
coal industries in 1947 and steel
in 1951.

14. • The limitations of this
were:
– Nationalisation did
little to improve
working efficiency in
these industries .
– Wages and working
conditions remained
generally
unimproved.
Limitations?