ABSTRACT
Beveridge's assumption that earnings from work can always be relied upon to keep a single breadwinner household above the poverty line, provided there is not an unduly large number of children, is not always correct. There is some evidence also, on a lesser scale, of failure to claim assistance in the case of the sick and the unemployed, but very few cases among fatherless families, where, presumably, the pressure of urgent needs overcomes any reluctance. The continuance of considerable poverty and lack of opportunity in the generally prosperous Britain of the 1960s and 1970s has led many people to question the principles on which the Welfare State was based in the early post-war years. To summarize these in the form of a critique of the relative success or failure of the British Welfare State in achieving its ideals.
