Compare The Changing Attitudes Of The State From 1906 To 1914

The lack of military efficiency on the battlefield and the physical inadequacies of the male populace revealed the situation that an industrialised, non-interventionist state had created. Britain had nothing that could contend with Germany’s exemplary army, Bismarkian network of social insurance which consisted of compulsory sickness and accident insurance and old age pensions, or the well organised educational system. Germany’s newly found economic, military and industrial dominance, provided the British government with evidence that state intervention had great benefits in establishing an efficient nation and this changed the attitude of the state towards the poor rapidly. Between 1906 and 1914 the Liberal Government introduced a large number of reforms to try to reduce poverty: compensation for workers who suffered from injuries that took place in the workplace was introduced in 1906; medical tests for students at schools with free treatment provided if necessary was introduced in 1907; non-contributory pensions for the elderly in 1908 and in 1911, the government introduced the National Insurance Act that provided contributory insurance for workers in time of sickness and unemployment benefit in certain industries
also. These reforms were of great significance as a the model for a social welfare service had been created which greatly improved the conditions for poorer people in British society and in contrast to earlier poor relief, they did not compromise the rights of the recipients.
The other way you can measure the attitudes of the state towards the poor is to measure the changing attitudes of the state towards the rich. In order to fund this social reform, the Liberals placed a higher taxation rate on the rich. This is significantly different from 1834 when the ‘less eligibility’ principle decreased the poor rate for landowners who saw it to be burdensome prior to the New Poor Law. The poor were no longer being penalised on account of appeasing the richer
class.

In conclusion, the attitudes of the state changed towards the poor drastically between 1814 and 1914. Between 1814 and 1865, the state neglected the poor and all reforms made during this period were made to force the poor to become self-sufficient although they did not have any means of resourcing themselves. This was because they predominantly believed that the poor were poor because of their failure to become successful after the Industrial Revolution and that their situation was karmic and therefore due to them, resulting in cycles of short term relief that plastered over the problems of poverty instead of solving them. Apart from the 1848 Public Health Act, no reform was made from the state that mildly benefitted the poor and it can be argued that this reform was only made because any alternative choice would have caused them harm eventually as disease is no respecter of person. The period between 1865 however and 1914 does demonstrate a change of the state’s attitude towards the poor and even still, there are intervals within this period. With the electorate being extended to the working class in 1869, poor people finally had somewhat of a voice and a stake in the nation which led to legislation and reforms that would benefit them. The Education Act of 1870 and the Public Health Act of 1875 laid a foundation for further reform to be built on later and these forms were made crucial with the help of social investigators Booth and Rowntree. Their work opened the eyes of the general public and most importantly, the state to the horrors of poverty which their laissez-faire attitude towards the poor had created.