The first act in the welfare reforms that Liberals brought in was to-do with children. In the end after several changes, it worked very well and provided healthy children. Before the Liberal reforms the children no real help, some charities often assisted them but many children had no proper meals and medical care. So the Liberals decided to begin with they would introduce the free school meals act, this was brought in to make sure that children received one proper meal a day however there were limitation to this and some local authorities chose to ignore this and in the end only half set up a meals service however the ones that did had great success. The attention then turned to medical care, schools were to now provide regular medical check ups again though there was a downfall to this they only provided check ups, no treatment which was what in a lot of cased the families couldn’t afford, so then they started to provide treatment as well. By providing a decent meal, and medical check ups and treatments the children were on the way to becoming strong and healthy, this reform helped in an enormous way to the well-being of the children along with the children and young persons act set up in 1908. This act was to crack down on social evil, children were now to be given a special status, and protection – parents could be prosecuted if they were accused of neglect. These three things, took time and money to set up but the Liberals were trying hard to help the poor, the next group of people they tackled were the old.
The old were unfortunate; once they couldn’t work anymore they had no source of income and had to rely on family. The Liberals recognised this factor and introduced a pension scheme, if a person had worked hard all there life, then they should be able to gain something out of it at the end, which is exactly what happened. They didn’t get a lot of money but the money they got made them independent which helped a lot in many cases. The old were not so much of a worry to the government anymore it was a small measure taken but a big step.
The unemployed were the next group to tackle, when there wasn’t any work about no income was gained so if a person didn’t have any income the government set up a benefit they got each week, it wasn’t a lot not enough to support the family but a foundation to build on. At times of employment the worker, his employer and the government put money into a fund, which was then paid out when no work was available this was only done in trades such as building, shipbuilding and engineering as unemployment was regular. The government did however set up a register, which unemployed people signed onto when they were unemployed they could then through this find some work this was very effective as it helped the unemployed to help themselves, money wasn’t just handed out.
Although all three of these groups of people were helped in a way to improve upon the poverty I think that the unemployed persons act worked the best, as it wasn’t just handing out money, the labour exchange helped people to help themselves, they also saved money at times of employment ready for the times when there wasn’t any work available. I tend to think though that children weren’t given enough attention as they should have been, their help had so many limitations and it had to be reviewed several times medical help and a meal did help to their well being but didn’t cut down on the poverty in their family – having children cost the families a lot and I think that families should have been given a small amount each week if the income of the family was quite low just to help feed and cloth the children properly but these measures may have been brought in later. Overall the Liberal reforms started well and in the long run I think they would have cut down on many poverty cases people were now starting to be able to live better lives, which would help England as a country.