A welfare state is a state with social services controlled or financed by the Government. These service aim to protect society's weakest members from the cradle to the grave. As Beveriage described it, a welfare state is the "provision of services for the prevention of disease, squalor, want, idleness and ignorance". (1)

The social reforms seemed to run counter to the laissez-faire individualist ideology of the nineteenth century Liberal party. This held to the view that the less state regulation the better. In the 1906 general election the Liberal party won a landslide victory on the basis, not of a programme of social reform, but in defence of free trade. This was a traditional Liberal policy, which was challenged by the unionist's adoption of tariff reform or protection as a response to the rise of foreign competition. The Liberals success was due to the identification in the public mind of free trade with cheap food.

By 1914 the Liberal Government had passed a number of very important social reforms. Concern over the health of the young led to the provision of school meals for needy children in 1906. The following year saw the introduction of school medical inspection. In 1908, juvenile courts and Borstals were set up as an alternative to prison for young people. Old Age Pensions had long been proposed and in 1908 the Government introduced a non-contributory scheme for the payment of five shillings a week for those over seventy. Also in the same year miners secured an eight-hour day. In 1909 the Trade Boards Act tried to protect workers in the sweated trades by setting up trade boards to determine minimum wages and maximum hours. The climax of the Liberal Social reforms was the National Insurance Act of 1911. Compulsory insurance against unemployment in trades was introduced for the benefit of about two and quarter million workers. Employer, employee and the state made weekly contributions to the insurance fund. Health insurance was also introduced in 1911. Everyone earning up to one hundred and sixty pounds per annum was compulsorily insurance against ill health. The scheme however did not cover the member of the employee's family and the employee.

Foreign influences were also important in the introduction of social reforms. In the 1880's Germany had launched a system of sickness and accident insurance. In 1898, New Zealand introduced Old Age Pensions. Lloyd George even visited Germany in 1908 to see how they had set up their social reforms. Britain did not want to be left behind and have the unhealthiest population in the world this was they embarked on a policy of sweeping social reform.

(3) GR Searle, The Liberal Party: Triumph and Disintegration.

(1) The Concise Dictionary of quotations

Some common words found in the essay are:
Liberal Government, Insurance Act, Insurance Acts, London Booth's, Taking Booth's, Education Act, Labour Exchanges, Labour Movement, Lord Rosebery, Boer War, liberal government, social reforms, school meals, age pensions, health insurance, sweated trades, labour exchanges, poverty line, liberal party, minimum wage, government 1906 1914, free medical inspections, hundred sixty pounds, trade boards act, insurance act 1911,
Approximate Word count = 2275
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)