How has the Welfare State tried to eliminate poverty and can it be successful?

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How has the Welfare State tried to eliminate poverty and can it be successful?

The welfare State is a system in which the state takes responsibility for the health and welfare of its citizens/subjects. The state uses benefits, free healthcare, free education and provide adequate living conditions to ensure that people’s health and well being is looked after. One of the aims of the welfare state is to eliminate poverty, poverty can come in many different forms some worse then others. Absolute poverty is when someone’s income doesn’t cover the minimum provisions needed to maintain health; these people are below the poverty line. Relative poverty are those people that cannot afford items that most people consider normal to have, such as a TV; therefore they are excluded from normal activities. Environmental poverty is not so much about money; someone may be above the poverty line but live in a neighbourhood with poor shops and parks. There is no official poverty line in Britain and because there are many different definitions of poverty it makes it hard to measure. However the success of the welfare state can be measured related to Beveride’s 5 giant evils: Want and poverty, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness. How successful the welfare state has been depends on weather or not the 5 evils have been eliminated or to what extent they have been eliminated.

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In the Elizabethan times (16th century) there was no welfare state and there was little support for those in poverty. Beggars wandered around the countryside looking for work to buy food. However a poor law was made that meant ratepayers in Parishes had to look after the sick, disabled, and the old and also provide work for those who could. This gave the poor some security but was not successful in getting rid of poverty.

The welfare state was first started by the Liberal government between 1906 – 1919. They started to introduce new services under social security, health, ...

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