From Cradle to the Grave
S5/6 Intermediate History
Student Introduction
• In Britain today we live in the Welfare
State.
• That means we live in a country where
the government takes responsibility for
ensuring that all people have a minimum
standard of living.
• *COPY ABOVE*
…Continued
• The sorts of things we would consider
essential to our lives (our minimum
standard of living) would be:




A roof over our heads
Money for clothes and food
A free education
Medical care as and when we need it
….Continued
• In fact, this means we receive care from the
cradle to the grave.
• Our mothers receive medical treatment
before we are born and if it is necessary our
relatives can get help towards paying our
funeral expenses
• Nowadays, people accept these things as part
of our rights as citizens and when we vote in
elections to choose our government we often
keep these things in mind to help us decide
which party we wish in power.
….Continued
• Governments also need to keep the
welfare of the people in mind when
choosing policies and deciding how to
spend our tax money.
• At election times they tell us how they
will help education, the unemployed or
the national health service
….Continued
• However, Britain has not always been like this.
• In this unit you will find out how we won these rights
• By studying this unit you will also learn

What the problem of poverty was like around 1900

Why people’s attitudes were changing to this
problem

What the Liberal government of 1906-1914 did to
tackle the problem

The way the Labour government of 1945-1951 set
up the Welfare State
….Continued
• As we go through the unit you should
also think about how the Welfare State
works today. By reading newspapers
and reading/listening to the news, you
can see what changes the government
plan for it in the future.
The Problem of Poverty around
1900
• By the end of this section you should know
and be able to describe and explain:

what is meant by poverty

what are the main causes of poverty

what is meant by self-help

what is meant by the voluntary system

the ways in which people’s ideas were
changing about poverty and its causes

what the work of Booth and Rowntree
showed about the lives of the poor
Poverty around 1900
• What is meant by poverty today in
comparison to 100 years ago?
• Poverty is being poor and it means
different things to different people in
different countries at different times!
Poverty
• In terms of what were are looking at, there
are two different types of poverty.
Primary Poverty
Secondary Poverty
..is when people do not have the
basic necessities of life –
things like food, housing and
clothes because they do not
earn enough money for them.
People who do not have these
things are often referred to as
living ‘below the poverty line’.
..is when people earn enough so
they could have the basic
necessities. However, because
they spend some of their
money unwisely they do not
actually have those basic
things.
*COPY ABOVE*
Poverty
• It is difficult to give exact definitions
of poverty.
• What people think is necessary for a
minimum standard of civilised life can
vary greatly from country to country
and from century to century
Examples
• Someone considered to be poor in Britain
today may well have a more comfortable life
than someone who was considered well-off in
the 19th C.
• Similarly, a poor person in Britain may have a
much higher standard of living than millions of
people around the world who regularly face
starvation.
• We often see pictures of starving children in
parts of Africa on our TV’s. Many people also
give to charities such as OXFAM who help
those who are often living in poverty.
Task
• Lets think about these points in a little more
detail
• In group of two, collect a ‘What it means to
be poor worksheet’.
• In your group complete the first two columns
(leave the third column blank – this will be
done at a later stage)
• An extra section has been left blank at the
bottom if you feel something important has
been missed out
• When you have done that, each two will
report back to the whole class to see how we
agree on what it means to be poor
What causes poverty?
• Poverty is caused by a variety of factors.
• Often it is caused by a combination of them.
• These factors include:
– Low wages
– Irregular earnings (when a person does not get the same
amount each week or cannot get work all the time, may be
just at certain times of the year)
– Unemployment
– Sickness
– Infirmity (having a disease or disability which makes it
difficult to work)
– Old age
– Family Size
– Death of the wage earner
Causes?
• Some people also believe three other
factors were also important causes of
poverty.
– Laziness: where the person did not want to
work
– Drunkenness: where the person waster
money on alcohol
– Gambling: where money was wasted on
betting
Task
• Draw a mind map/spider diagram/list of
all the factors which cause poverty.
• Start with a large bubble in the
middle/top….
What causes
Poverty?
Questions!
• Why is it difficult to give exact
definitions of Primary Poverty and
Secondary Poverty?
• Looking at what you wrote in column 2
of ‘What it means to be poor’, do you
think poverty in Britain around the year
2000 is more primary or secondary?
Extension
• Collect ‘The Causes of Poverty’ help
sheet.
• In your pairs, look at the list/diagram
of the 11 causes of poverty. Show
whose fault it is by putting a tick in the
columns; for eg. Old age must be ‘no-one’
because we all grow old at some point –
this is no-one’s fault.
• *NB. Some of the causes might be the
fault of more than one group