ABSTRACT
Welfare and social policy in the late twentieth century have come to mean state involvement in the provision of minimum incomes and unemployment programmes, and interventions into the family life, health, education and housing of the nation. These things did not exist in early nineteenthcentury Britain in the forms in which they are known today. The New Poor Law of 1834 set out the rather unpleasant consequences of relying on state benevolence to ensure personal survival, and most other aspects of welfare had to be found somehow by individual family endeavour or not at all. In the years up to 1914 considerable change took place. A mass of voluntary organisations, friendly societies and non-profit institutions grew substantially in savings, insurance, health, education, housing and the alleviation of poverty. London shared disproportionately in their expansion and attention. The state, at local and central levels, moreover, was forced to confront problems that governments previously were expected to leave to private interests. The origins of the modern welfare state system and social policies can be seen in these various movements because, once in existence, by creating a degree of path dependency they passed on a legacy.
