ABSTRACT
The British welfare state has it roots in the Poor Laws initiated at the end of the sixteenth century and later modified in 1834. Owing in part to the advocacy and philanthropy of middle-class women’s organisations, relief for the poor from both the state and private charities expanded throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was in the wake of World War II, however, that the national programmes that constitute the backbone of the British welfare state were established. Programmes such as the National Health Act of 1946, the National Insurance Act of 1946 and the 1948 National Assistance Act established a network of institutions and programmes designed to provide social and economic protection. In the 1980s and 1990s, Margaret T h a t c h e r ’s Conservative Government reduced, although did not eliminate, many aspects of the British welfare state.
