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In December 1942 the government released a report authored by Sir William Beveridge in which he wrote:

A revolutionary moment in the world's history is a time for revolutions, not for patching.

William Beveridge believed in state intervention to ease social and economic issues, such as unemployment. Beveridge worked in public policy and organising social systems. In the First World War he organised munition supplies.

From 1919 to 1937 Beveridge was the director of the London School of Economics (LSE) and became more involved in advising on the economy in the 1930s. After World War Two William Beveridge became a Lord and led the Liberal Party in the House of Lords.

Beveridge and Unemployment

William Beveridge's involvement in social security pre-dates his famous report. He played a key role in introducing a national system of labour exchanges in 1909 which helped to connect people seeking work with vacancies nationwide.

Beveridge's work on unemployment in the early twentieth century showed that unemployment was affected by ‘boom and bust’ times in the economy. He also showed that casual labour would be most affected at these times.

As an expert in unemployment, Beveridge took part in debates and discussion on the radio and TV, in talks at working men’s clubs and in newspapers during the 1930s, when there was mass unemployment.

Beveridge in World War Two

Beveridge begged the government to let him help with the war effort. At first, he was involved in organizing employment. In June 1941 Beveridge was appointed to lead a committee, formed of members of the Civil Service, to recommend changes to British social services following the War.

This committee sat for hundreds of hours of interviews and conducted research with businesses, trade unions, charities and other interested parties. The final report was made after eighteen months of intensive work.

During this time, Britain had gone through the Blitz and the war effort affected everyone’s lives, whether by rationing, conscription (for both military and essential work on farms), blackouts etc. This is known as ‘total war’.

The Beveridge Report

In December 1942, William Beveridge published a report that was officially called Social Insurance and Allied Services, but it swiftly became known as the Beveridge Report. A press report from the time stated that it:

‘became the discussion topic of the whole country, because if it is adopted by the Government and put into force it will revolutionise the whole life of the British people’.

The Beveridge Report, 1942

The report ‘envisages a future of state and citizen co-operation’ that partly came out of the collectivism – the state, communities and people coming together to work for the common good – brought by total war. The introduction of Free School Milk and Meals in 1941 was arguably a collective measure to improve living standards and a precursor to the reforms proposed by Beveridge.

Beveridge’s report made recommendations to the government, but it was not certain that what Beveridge proposed would happen.

The Five Giants

Among the most famous elements of the report were 'The Five Giants'. These were personifications – abstract ideas represented by people – of the most pressing issues facing the country: want, squalor, ignorance, idleness, and disease.

Beveridge sought to defeat the giants through redeveloped social services, including a free health service (later the National Health Service), family allowances and social insurance to help people deal with periods of unemployment.

What the report said:

Beveridge proposed a universal system of social insurance financed by the state with contributions made by employers and employees from their pay. A flat-rate basic (subsistence) payment would be made to protect people not working through sickness, unemployment or old age. This meant no means testing and everyone received the same amount whatever their social class or income.

The insurance would be taken from pay at a flat tax rate across all pay. It was a minimum income for subsistence to – as Beveridge put it – prevent Want but discourage Idleness, i.e. the incentive was to work.

Full Male Employment and Family Allowance

There was a commitment to full male employment for the proposals to work so enough money came from employee and employer to the government. It was presumed that it would be men who worked and who were the main income provider for households.

This created a number of problems for women who, if married, were assumed to have a wage earner supporting them. This restricted their access to full benefits and limited women’s options for work.

The MP and women’s rights activist Eleanor Rathbone had campaigned since the 1920s for a separate family allowance. This was for the maintenance of children to be paid to mothers. Beveridge proposed that this should be introduced in the report.

'A Time for Revolutions'

Over 650,000 copies of the report were sold – a very high number for a government document. Copies of the summary were given to men and women serving in the armed forces.

Beveridge’s recommendations for free medical treatment of every kind for everybody as well as social security benefits and state pension provision would ensure the ‘hungry thirties’ could not happen again. A great deal of health and social care had been provided by charities and religious organisations, particularly for those who could not pay for doctors. Beveridge took evidence from many of the people working for these organisations. He suggested that they could continue to work alongside new government bodies in continuing to provide care.

The ‘total war’ of the Second World War meant that people at home were affected by the conflict through evacuation, food rationing and war work. All social classes were affected by aerial bombing raids, though the homes of working class people – who tended to live nearer to industry or docks – were damaged more.

William Beveridge, 1937

In this radio broadcast, on the day the report is published, Beveridge explains his radical plans for economic and social reform in post-war Britain. He argued we need ‘the abolition of Want before the enjoyment of comfort’.

The report was used as propaganda as a promise of what was to come in peacetime. Free healthcare and a non means tested benefit system were reasons to fight for most people. It was circulated to troops and dropped in parts of occupied Europe.

Social Security from ‘Cradle to Grave’

Britain’s welfare state is often spoken of as a triumph of peacetime, however, Beveridge's plan for it was drawn while the world was at war. Politicians were united on the need to change the system of social care but divided on how to make it work and how much of the Beveridge Report to put into practice.

In February 1943 as a result a further committee was formed to look in detail at implementing the recommendations of the report (the Sheepshanks Committee) in April.

The Conservative Party supported aspects of the report. Churchill, the leader of the Conservative Party, coined the phrase 'from the Cradle to the Grave' in a radio broadcast in March 1943 to describe the need for some form of social insurance to give security to every class of citizen in the state. However, Churchill was against too much state intervention and supported ‘freedom of choice’ in healthcare.

The Liberal Party supported the Beveridge Report, including the inclusion of voluntary groups and charities in providing social security.

The Labour Party agreed with the main recommendations of the Beveridge Report but thought the State should provide full benefits and free healthcare for all and exclude voluntary societies.

The 1945 General Election

After World War Two, a general election was immediately called as the wartime coalition government of the major parties (Labour, Conservative and National Government) split apart. The General Election took place on 5 July 1945. The results were not all counted until 26 July due to the need to collect votes from the enormous number of men and women in the armed services, which were stationed across the world.

At the centre of the Labour Party Manifesto for the 1945 election is the implementation of the report’s recommendations around national insurance and health. Key Labour politicians had also run some of the most relevant domestic departments during the war, such as Ernest Bevin Minister of Labour and National Service.

Labour Victory

The 1945 election led to a Labour Party victory and they had over 100 MPs more than any other party. The new Labour government introduced the steps for the National Health Service (NHS) and the implementation of other areas identified within the Beveridge Report, such as national insurance.

The inclusion or use of voluntary and ‘friendly societies’ was not included in practical enactment of report by the Labour Government. All functions were controlled by the State.

The three decades following 1945 are known as a time of post-War consensus: an agreement by the main political parties that the Beveridge welfare state and a mixed economy would best keep inequality in check and stop poverty.

The National Health Service

Even before the election, parts of the Beveridge Report were being put into place by the coalition wartime government. The Labour Government introduced the laws and infrastructure needed for social security and the National Health Service (NHS):

1944 Education Act (wartime coalition)
1945 Family Allowances Act
1946 National Insurance Act and National Health Services Act
1946 USA 50 year loan to UK of $3.75 Billion
5 July 1948 National Health Service established