Showing posts with label welfare state. Show all posts
Showing posts with label welfare state. Show all posts

Saturday, August 29, 2026

How The Welfare State and the NHS Has Changed Since 1945 | Andrew Seaton

Aug 28, 2026 | "To begin with, everything was free, including prescriptions, dentistry services and so on. But in 1949, they brought this act in that would allow them to put a shilling charge on prescriptions."

As the expensive welfare state holds court in parliament proceedings on most days, historian Andrew Seaton takes us back to the advent of the universal welfare state between 1945 and 1948.


Tuesday, May 09, 2023

Food Banks Are Taking Over from the Welfare State, Warns Gordon Brown

THE GUARDIAN: Former Labour PM, writing in the Observer, calls for action as charities increasingly take over role of social security system

Food banks are increasingly “taking over from the welfare state”, former Labour PM Gordon Brown has warned, amid growing concerns that lack of state support is forcing them into a permanent role in fighting poverty.

With food banks increasingly warning that even working people are seeking help, a new “multibank” model is now emerging to help families with everything from hygiene products to furniture. However, concerns are growing within the food aid movement that their services are becoming so widespread that they are now a crucial fixture, rather than a last resort.

Writing in the Observer last Sunday, Brown, who works with a multibank in Fife, calls on companies to donate their surplus goods and produce more items at cost price as he warns of “rising deprivation among those without money or power”. He also warns food banks are filling the growing hole in support. “As charities take over from the welfare state as our national safety net and the food bank, not the social security system, becomes the last line of defence against destitution, it is difficult not to fear for the future,” he writes. » | Michael Savage, Observer Policy Editor | Tuesday, May 9, 2023