Social Policy Development and Poverty Attitudes: A Detailed Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the development of social policy and attitudes towards poverty from the 19th century to the present day. It explores the historical context of social welfare, including the impact of the Elizabeth Poor Law and subsequent reforms. The report examines changing attitudes towards the poor, distinguishing between absolute and relative poverty, and assesses the impact of limited resources on the state's ability to address poverty. Furthermore, it analyzes the post-war development of social welfare in the context of broader societal issues, highlighting the shift towards social inclusion and the ongoing efforts to combat poverty and social exclusion. The paper concludes by emphasizing the significant role of social policies in addressing poverty, despite the challenges and changes witnessed over time. Desklib offers a wealth of resources, including similar reports and past papers, to support students in their academic endeavors.

Running head: POVERTY
POVERTY
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1POVERTY
Introduction:
Poverty entails more than the basic definition of a lack of income and resources in order
to sustain a living. Poverty is a massive social issue that seeks immediate attention in order to
eliminate its existence from society (Hagenaars 2017). The term changes its definition and its
scale according to place and society. For example, the state of poverty in a developed country is
certainly different than the state of poverty in a developed country. A wide range of criteria
involves in the term ‘poverty’ and over the years social policies have been made in order to
combat the social issue. The development of the social policy and attitudes to poverty from the
19th century have altered in various ways. The paper aims to analyze the development of social
policy on poverty and the attitudes to poverty from the 19th century through to the current day.
Discussion:
1.1 The development of social welfare from a historical perspective
During the early 19th century, poverty began to grow as a public concern. Since the 19th-
century people began conducting surveys and began making detailed description regarding the
lives of the poor (Converse 2017). During the end of the 19th century, more than 25 per cent of
the population of the nation was living below or at the subsistence level. The history of social
welfare has evolved through charitable works, organized activities devoted to the social reform
movements along with public social services and non-profit social services to benefit citizens of
the nation. Charitable efforts have commonly raised from religious beliefs that have compassion,
firm ethical convictions with a sense of strong justice. The foundation of the movements were
the reformer’s faiths that led movements in the society. Enactment of Elizabeth poor law of 1601
was the first major step towards creating organized social welfare programs by the parliament of

2POVERTY
England (Graves and Lockyer 2014). Through the help of the specific law, government provision
was authorized for the poor residing in local parishes and even established a system of obligatory
financing outside the church. Prior to 19th century, the impact of the several social phenomena
such as large scale immigration, revolutionary war and widespread urbanization increased, the
cost of taxes required for poor relief and the incidences of poverty increased as well (Woolf
2016). The government began enacting new laws to provide public assistance however within a
short while circumstances demanded more public attention for preventing poverty and other
social ills. The reports on the contribution of the institutions on helping people who were in need
were below the required level. The reports published about the conditions of the institutional care
and places needing significant development such as slum housing, diseases, child labour, low
wages and urban growth. Due to the specified conditions of the citizen, greater public health
efforts were initiated trying to solve the problems caused due to poverty. Social welfare history
can be described by the changes that took place in the laws in order to help activities and services
that the state initiated for fighting with various social ills of the complex origin. Although there
were many other social ills, poverty and public assistance play a major role in this specific
narrative. With WW2, the development of the social policy was considered more carefully to
ensure people are provided with healthcare and appropriate access to resources. British social
policy was dominated by primarily by the poor law which began in 1598 and continued till 1948.
The Elizabeth Poor Law was due to the compulsory poor rate, the creation of ‘overseas’ of relief
and provision for ‘setting the poor on work’. Also, when the industrial revolution led to the
development of towns, rapid population and unemployment rate, it only increased poverty. The
Poor-law Commission of 1834 was hated in the beginning however, most of the development
was done based on this specific law such as national insurance and healthcare.

3POVERTY
2.1 Different attitudes and views to social welfare reforms from the 19th C. onwards
There is a significance of social welfare reforms from the 19th century. The parliament
made reforms when the society’s condition was taken under consideration for the development
of the nation. In order to improve the lives of men, women and children belonging to the poorer
section of the society. Various new measures established involving government in welfare
provision as well as in regulating conditions of work in factories, mines and workshops (Dean
2013).
There were two factors that helped to explain the contrast between the various paths
taken by the Acts that shaped the development of the English laws during the nineteenth century.
Although the hardship of the people was coherent, it was not until 1843 that the reform was
considered significant. With the reform, the immediate cause of reform was spilt in the churches,
widely known as the Great Disruption in 1843. The financial pressure on churches increased
leading to plans that support to give parishes the power to introduce a compulsory levy. After
new powers were introduced in the 19th century, many able-bodied men continued to be
excluded from the poor relief system.The 19th century witnessed important development
regarding working conditions and the poverty level of the nation. The working condition of the
country and introduction of new housing standards in accordance with the provision of
healthcare. The early attitudes towards the poor was majorly considered as their own fault. The
perception of poor was lazy, drunk who needed to help themselves. Poverty was considered a
good state as it would turn into scroungers. While paupers deserved help, poor did not during
that period. In 19th century, the levels of poverty was extremely high. It was then realized that the
lives of poor were harsh and extremely precautious. 1980’s socialism, also helped in rising
awareness about the severity of poverty. In the year 1833, government grants to educational

4POVERTY
bodies were introduced. Various other development including School boards, Public Health Act
in 1848 and improvement of public health from 1870s. By the end of 18th century state knew
more about poverty than any other previous years. In the 19th century initiation were undertaken
due to the growth of public demand and failure in the role of institutions. People had to enter the
workhouse in case they were without any income. The workhouse, which was previously feared
by the poor was becoming more humane.
3.1 The concepts of need, absolute poverty and relative poverty.
Poverty can be defined as a state or condition of an individual, group or community
where they lack the basic amenities such as food, clothing and shelter. The definition of poverty
can differ depending on the place, time and society. Poverty is the deprivation of things that
determine the quality of an individual’s life. When a person, group or community do have access
to basic amenities, they fall under the category of poverty. Poverty can be distinguished as two
types, absolute poverty and relative poverty (Klasen 2016). Absolute poverty can be defined as
the poverty where the basic essentials of life such as food, clothes and shelter are absent.
Relative poverty can be defined as the poverty where the things that are considered ‘important’
by the society is absent such as quality housing, certain household goods involving television,
fridge, beds and other household treasures. In absolute poverty, the household income is below
the necessary level to sustain basic living standards. It is a condition that makes possible to
compare between different countries. Relative poverty is a condition where the household
income is adequate to survive however it is not up to the standard of living that is considered
ideal by the society. Absolute poverty makes it impossible to survive while people under relative
poverty only have an average household income that does not allow for anything that is above
the basics (Shildrick and MacDonald 2013).

5POVERTY
3.2 The impact of limited resources on the State’s ability to set priorities.
In order to develop a nation, economic development is significant. Lack of resources is
one of the major problems and considered as an obstacle. Poverty in the UK is not simply due to
a lack of resources like it is in many other nations. Poverty is not always in terms of the way it is
defined in the academic papers. Poverty includes a central theme that is a conflicting social
understanding. When poverty is an expanding problem and resources are limited it has several
impacts on the nation. Scarcity leads to negative emotions which then effects the decisions of the
decision makers. In order to reduce the costs of poor relief, an act placed the workhouse where
the less eligibility would be able to work. The workhouse was the significant part that led to
making changes in the situation (Panke 2016). Every person had to work to get their daily bread.
Although child allowances were given and bans were established. The fewer resources pushed
towards finding ways to improve the conditions. The children were given priority to invest in the
future. Priorities to give resources were distributed with much consideration. During the 20th
century, Britain improved ensuring only 20 per cent of the population as middle class.
4.1 The post war development of social welfare within the context of wider issues
affecting society.
There were several things that nations worldwide became aware of after the Great War
and one among it is the new impulse to the further development of public welfare system that
emerged during the previous decades. A quest for the social protection of the population was one
of the major concern of UK as well. although the capacity of many measures were reduced due
to dramatic conditions of the 1920s, strong foundations were laid thinking about the future
development of universalistic social system (Bendix 2017). The development and changes in the
social life led to change in the social needs. Social policies after the war taken with an acute

6POVERTY
consideration. Social inclusion was one of the important factor that evolved during the 1990s and
a number of social policies were been justified in terms in order to reduce social exclusion. After
the war focus was shifted to many areas, in 1999 the department for work and pensions began
publishing annual audit on poverty along with social exclusion (Omi and Winant 2014). The
term was received with ambiguity however often it was known as a ‘contested term’ known only
as another word for ‘poverty’. The people who were under the poverty were mostly the people
who were socially excluded leading them deprived from gaining knowledge and skills.
Therefore, policies were developed to re-include the deprived people. Britain in the first decades
of the twenty-first century was mostly into amending these following evils, such as social
exclusions. Poverty was then eliminated and it is now a relative deprivation poverty.
Abolishment of poverty is one of the achievement of the welfare policies.
Conclusion:
All the societies have made social policies where the state plays a minor role in welfare
provision. Although 19th century Britain has witnessed a range of changes, poverty is one of the
main issues. Earlier the many institutions have played the main role in meeting the needs.
However, by the end of the 18th-century realization of poverty’s magnitude was much higher.
During the end of the 1790s, the perception of the society gave a vivid image of the system that it
was under severe strain. Rapid growth in the number of parish poor that were seeking assistance
along with the cost to ratepayers to maintain the system. Specifically, as the payments were
increased compared to the price of the bread and the size of families, that made the reformers
change act.

7POVERTY
References:
Bendix, R., 2017. Nation-building and citizenship: Studies of our changing social order.
Routledge.
Converse, J.M., 2017. Survey research in the United States: Roots and emergence 1890-1960.
Routledge.
Dean, M., 2013. The Constitution of Poverty (Routledge Revivals): Towards a genealogy of
liberal governance. Routledge.
Graves, M.A. and Lockyer, R., 2014. Elizabethan Parliaments 1559-1601. Routledge.
Hagenaars, A.J., 2017. The definition and measurement of poverty. In Economic Inequality and
Poverty: International Perspectives (pp. 148-170). Routledge.
Klasen, S., 2016. Levels and trends in absolute poverty in the world: What we know and what
we don’t. In Absolute poverty and global justice (pp. 43-58). Routledge.
Omi, M. and Winant, H., 2014. Racial formation in the United States. Routledge.
Panke, D., 2016. Small states in the European Union: coping with structural disadvantages.
Routledge.
Shildrick, T. and MacDonald, R., 2013. Poverty talk: how people experiencing poverty deny
their poverty and why they blame ‘the poor’. The Sociological Review, 61(2), pp.285-303.
Woolf, S., 2016. The poor in Western Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Routledge.