Lesson Starter

The Liberal Model does not allow the principles of the Welfare State to be fully

met.

Give two pieces of evidence to back up this statement.

What will I learn? • I am learning to understand the

different ideologies on welfare provision.

Success Criteria • Outline the difference between

individualism, the Third Way and Big Society.

Individualism v Collectivism

Individual Personal Responsibility

• Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Governments represented the opposite approach to that of Beveridge: individual personal responsibility.

• The Thatcher years saw the ideals of Beveridge challenged and the welfare state cut back in size and scope.

• The Conservatives believed the welfare state had created a “dependency culture”, where people became lazy and relied on the “nanny state” to look after them.

• Instead of collective solutions, the Conservatives offered individual solutions

The Individualist view

• The individualist philosophy is not new.

It is, in principle, no different from the “laissez faire” approach of the 19th century.

• Individualists believe that government should have as little to do with the workings of society.

• It should tax as little as possible and leave individuals to be responsible for their own wealth and health.

• The individualists rose to prominence during the Thatcher years.

• Individualists are most common in the USA, which has a much less extensive welfare state than the UK

New Labour (1997)• New Labour attempted to blend individual

responsibility with collective support as part of a “third way” approach to welfare.

• Charles Murray, an American sociologist claims that welfare benefits for single-parents have encouraged the decline of the family.

• "A plague is spreading through our social fabric".• He sees a) high unemployment, and b) high single-

parenthood as the central causes.• This, for him, has encouraged a "counter-culture"

which devalues work, encourages criminality and a quote; “dependency-culture" (i.e. on state hand-outs).

• He claims that Britain will see an “underclass” develop who will avoid "normal" work and live a life of crime, illegitimacy and government “dependency”.

The Third Way • New Labour, under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown

believed that their government was ‘modernising’ the welfare state whilst retaining its founding principles.

• Government benefits should be ‘hand up, not hand out’

• The Labour Party used phrases such as ‘welfare dependency’ and sought to bring in ‘welfare to work’ programmes.

• New Deals• Trimmed back Welfare benefits. • Means tested• (SEE REST OF HANDOUT- CHALLENGES TO

THE WELFARE STATE)

New Labour and the Welfare State Hand out

• Make a mind map which gives examples of how New Labour tackled each of the five giants.

Lesson Starter

Outline the meaning of Labour’s third way approach

to welfare.

New Labour’s

response to the 5 Giants

Disease•Invested a record

amount of money in the NHS.

•Used PPP partnerships to renovate old

hospitals. •Acknowledged the link between poverty and

bad health. •Welfare to Work

Programmes (Want)

Squalor•Introduced a new type of housing;

part private and part public - housing associations.

•Not for profit organisations but ran by professional managers

Ignorance•“education, education,

education”•Differences in

approaches to education between Scotland and

England. •New Labour

controversially introduced tuition fees in

England.

Idleness•Welfare to Work strategy

•Best way out of poverty is through work.

•Make work pay•The New Deal, working family tax

credits• The National Minimum Wage

David Cameron’s Broken Society

• ‘Circumstances: where you’re born, your neighbourhood, your school and the choices your parents make have a huge impact. But

social problems are often the consequence of the choices that people make’

• Broken society refers to social evils such as long-term unemployment, crime and poverty.

• Heal broken society with greater individual responsibility yet offering state help to those

prepared to face up to their problems.

The Big Society • "It’s time for something

different, something bold – something that doesn’t just pour money down the throat of wasteful, top-down government schemes. The Big Society is that something different and bold. It’s about saying if we want real change for the long-term, we need people to come together and work together – because we’re all in this together.”

David Cameron, July 2010

Vanguard Communities

• Across the country "vanguard communities" have been set up.

• In these communities, individuals and voluntary groups are funded to take over duties previously provided by the state.

• These groups can run housing projects, schools, youth groups and cultural organisations.

• A "big society bank”, of some £400m taken from dormant bank and building society accounts, has been established to finance charities and voluntary groups.

Critics of the Big Society • The first criticism is that the Big Society is nothing new.

• The UK has thousands of voluntary groups already and many individuals make their own personal contribution to community life.

• A more serious criticism is that the Big Society is simply a smokescreen for big cuts in public services.

• These cuts may well have happened under any government elected in May 2010.

• But, it is argued that, underneath the spin of the Big Society, this is just the same “bad old” Conservatives slashing the state on ideological grounds.

• It is claimed that the Conservatives, by default, just do not like the welfare state.

• The Big Society, therefore, is an attempt at American style social services, where volunteers and charities fund hospitals and schools, rather than the state.

• This would mean the end of the Beveridge’s welfare state.• Instead of national, collective provision, the UK would become a

patchwork quilt of different groups providing services of varying quality.

Challenges to the Welfare State

Make a mind map of the different challenges facing the

welfare state.

The Welfare Revolution

The UK has one of the highest rates of workless households in Europe, with 1.9 million children living in homes where no one has a job.

Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary is determined to reform the Welfare State.

He pledges to tackle the complicated patchwork of benefits and tax credits for people of working age. In its place he proposes a ‘universal credit’.

War over Welfare Paired Reading

1.Work in pairs. 2.Label yourselves ‘A’ and ‘B’

3.You will be given an article to read.

4.Read the first part on your own.

5.‘A’ then describes what they have read to ‘B’, and so on. 6.Take notes/ highlight whilst

reading.

Summary• The Bedroom Tax• 1% Benefit Uprating • Welfare Benefit Cap• Universal Credit (UC) introduced• Strivers, not Shirkers

Essay Practice

• 2011• Health and welfare provision should

be the responsibility of government

• 2008• Critically examine the view that

government, not individuals, should be responsible for health care and welfare provision.