The Liberals created many reforms which impacted the lives of British people differing between aid and attention for well being of all ages and insurance for the unemployed or sick. This essay will investigate whether they were of positive or negative on the British people.
The Liberals made many social reforms which were not necessarily directly helpful to the individual issues at hand but they did create grounds for the welfare estate to be built upon and highlighted the areas which needed attention for a better minimum quality of life. Areas focused on were free meals and health checks at schools, pensions and insurances. For example, the 1906 School Meals Act allowed children to have a free daily meal. This was effective in 1914 as by then, 14 million were receiving the free meals which duly led to a better economy however the negatives outweighed the positives as the issue with having the act voluntary until 1912 meant that over half of the authorities didn’t provide meals. Furthermore, proving eligibility was very difficult so there were many errors which occurred with the system. Rather similarly, Old Aged Pensioners couldn’t receive their money due to identity proofing issues. Household issues were ignored which was one of the Liberal’s negatives however, this is without taking into account that only so many areas could have been focused on. Although the Liberals never catered for the needs of all people, their reforms managed to always bring some improvement into areas of health, education and the future of citizens, no matter how poor in places they were. The Liberal Social Reforms did improve the lives of the British citizens to some extent, the main achievement being that the existence of the reforms themselves allowed to building of the welfare estate which is a factor that makes Britain as strong as it is today.
By 1909 the state had already some provisions in place for pensions