introduced to give children living in poverty one decent meal per day.
Medical inspections of children in schools started and education
authorities could provide free medical treatment after 1912. If ill - health was
discovered the child's parents were informed and encouraged to seek
treatment by a doctor.
The Children's Act made it a legal offence for parents to neglect their
child and a list of provisions were introduced including : -
* Child begging was forbidden
* Children in public houses was forbidden
* The sale of tobacco and alcohol to children under 16 was also
prohibited.
However, neither of these measures were initiated by the Liberals although
they did take them over. Problems for all children were not solved though as
many education authorities ignored the provision of free medical treatment and
school meals were not made compulsory until 1914.
The Old Age Pensions Act was introduced in order to give the elderly
enough money to live on so that they would not be dependent on the Poor Law
and its workhouses. Pensioners over 70 could collect 5s. per week at their local
post office but this amount was not enough to improve the situation as there
was still a number of pensioners on the breadline.
However, the government had abandoned its laissez - faire policy (
where they would not interfere with the lives of the public) for the first time
and they tried to deal with the problem of individual poverty in a manner of
rights rather than of charity.
Another step in the governments quest for national efficiency was aimed
at the sick and the unemployed. A minimum wage was established for workers
in the sweated industries, an 8 hour day was also established for coal miners
and workers were also entitled to compensation for injuries sustained at work.
Labour exchanges were set up in main towns to help people find work by
allowing them to view job advertisements and shop assistants were granted a
weekly half day holiday and a maximum working week of 60 hours was
introduced.
The Trade Boards Act was set up to protect domestic workers from low
pay and excessively long hours. Fixed minimum rates of pay were introduced
and employers who paid less were fined for the offence.
National Insurance provided compulsory health insurance for workers
earning less than £160 a year, provided sickness benefit, free medical
treatment and maternity benefits. It also provided compulsory umemployment
insurance schemes for trades badly hit by periodic umemployment.
All these positive moves helped a great deal to promote the problema of
poverty but the problem of squalor and disease associated with living in slums
was not addressed and a full employment policy was an alien concept to the
Liberals.
Although the Liberal reforms made improvements to the problems of
poverty to a fairly limited extent, these were important first steps and
showed the foundations of a commitment to the set up of a welfare state in
Britain.
