Assessment of the impact of Beveridge welfare state on the society of UK

Running head: Social policy

Social policy 1
“Assessment of the impact of Beveridge welfare state on the society of UK “
The Beveridge Report also known as Social Insurance and Allied Services was a report
submitted by the government which was published in 1942. It had created a great impact in the
formulation of a welfare state in the UK. It was conscripted by William Beveridge who had
projected the reforms relating to the system of welfare states to address the five biggest evils
faced by the society viz. unawareness, desires, disease, joblessness and foulness .So, in this
essay, the impact of the Beveridgean Welfare State on its delivery of care and wellbeing since
its inception shall be assessed. Furthermore, the role of state and society in the implementation of
the welfare policies and their efficiency shall also be analyzed.
As per Hall (2012) there has been a great influence on the practices of care and welfare since
the inception of the Beveridgean Welfare State. The main aim of the welfare state was to
demolish the five giant evils and poverty was one of them, so it has greatly influenced the
mitigation of poverty. There was a decrease in the poverty, slum clearance, inequality, and a rise
in real incomes which had a great impact on the rise in the tax incomes and helped the country to
pay its post war debts. Thus it was concluded that the problem had been eradicated to a great
extent. The level of poverty remains stable over the past decade which is 21% or around 13
Million people now reside in houses where one of the family members is working. The social
policy of Beveridgean Welfare State refers to providing services to the people in the areas of
health services, social protection, educational services and housing provisions and subsidies.
However, it seems that the five giants are creeping back into the society again. It has been found
that around 1,252,000 people comprising of 321,000 children are facing destitution in Britain at
some point of time in a year. Approximately 2% of the population of Britain which is the fifth
largest economy of the world has to face the problems related to poverty (Armstrong, 2017).
The society of UK has been facing with the second giant evil known as disease. The children
born in the poor areas are born with 200 g less than those born in the richest neighborhoods. The
children born in the poor areas tend to die within their first year of life and amongst the
survivals, most of them are likely to have chronic diseases for the rest of their lives( Isakjee,
2017).

Social policy 2
The third evil is unawareness for education. England has ranked amongst the bottom four OECD
countries in terms of literacy and technology amongst the age group of 16-24 years. It has been
reported that 20% of the people of UK does not have internet connections at their homes .
The fourth evil pertains to foulness or uncleanliness has been prevailing in the society of Great
Britain. Thus a ban on the councils building homes have led to their shortage and around one
third of the private rental homes in UK fail to qualify for the National Decent Homes Standard
(Brindle, Kelley and Neil, 2014).
The fifth evil relates to unemployment. It has been reported that nearly 5% of British people are
unemployed. It means that 95% of them have got their source of earning. However, the average
pay adjusted for inflation has fell by 0.5% year after year (Franklin, Brancati and Hochlaf ,
2016).
As per Hughes (2017) new models of health care have been developed across UK to balance the
enhanced demand for improved health and social care services contrary to the decreased
expenditure. Despite of the failure of the integrated care programs to decrease the number of
hospital admissions, certain substitutes have been emerged regarding the community based
integrated care. These policies demonstrate the methods to tackle the issues of ageing and
number of admissions in the hospital with the help of specific structures of the policy.
The impact of welfare policies on the delivery of care and wellbeing is associated with flat rate
benefits and tax funded social support. The ‘Beveridgean model’ is still been regarded as the
fundamental principles of the welfare state. It forms the basis for providing benefits as well as
the right of the stakeholders for eliminating the threats of means tested assistance
(Humphries ,2015).
The important elements of a Welfare State can comprise of health, adequate housing facilities,
education, welfare including child welfare and social security of all the individuals. So, the role
of state and society in respect of their obligation of care and wellbeing of adults is in
empowering by providing guaranteed minimum standards of living comprising of minimum
wages and the social protection of all the individuals in the society in the event of their