| General | 1563 - 1832
The Poor Law was established in the reign of Queen Elizabeth to administer relief to paupers, both the "deserving" - the elderly and sick - and the "undeserving" - the able-bodied. Funds were raised by taxes on the wealthy and relief was administered locally via the parish. The 1601 Poor Law Act cemented procedures, with parish inhabitants paying the 'poor rate' tax, landowners and churchwardens appointed as overseers of the poor and poorhouses built to house the poor and engage the able-bodied in work. The Settlement Act was passed in 1662 which aimed to control the demand for relief which had begun to burden the more generous or better equipped parishes. Relief could only be administered to paupers in possession of a Settlement certificate which registered that parish as the place of their birth or gainful employment.
An amendment to the Law in 1723 decreed that those applying for relief must work a stint in the parish workhouse. Knatchbull's Act allowed workhouses to be set up jointly between parishes (often run by an external contractor) and was intended to deter paupers from claiming relief by the establishment of strict regimes within the workhouses. Partly as a result of humanitarian concerns, in 1782 Gilbert's Act was passed, and each poorhouse came to be administered by the county or union of parishes and in which relief was provided to those unable to work. Able-bodied paupers were encouraged (via wage subsidies to land-owners) to find local work rather than claiming benefit.
1832 - 1941
In 1832 the government appointed a Royal Commission to conduct a survey into the state of the Poor Law administration. It put its findings into practice two years later when the Poor Law Amendment Act was passed, which aimed to ensure that the union workhouse was the principal form of poor relief and that only the desperate and deserving would want to claim relief in it. Similar Acts were passed in Ireland and Scotland over the next few years. In 1847 the Poor Law Commission which had administered the controversial new system was succeeded by the Poor Law Board, which in turn was replaced in 1871 by the Local Government Board.
Another Royal Commission in 1905 saw two reports made on the future of the Poor Law, one arguing for its reform and another for its abolishment. None of either reports' recommendations made it into the statute books, but influenced other aspects of welfare legislation. In 1909 the first old age pensions were introduced,and the National Insurance Act of 1911 provided health insurance to unemployed people not already dependent on poor relief. In 1929 the Local Government Act served to replace the board of workhouse (or Poor Law Institution) guardians with accountable local council workers.
Under the terms of the Unemployment Act of 1934, the Ministry of Labour established the Unemployment Assistance Board which provided aid and insurance to unemployed people not already provided for by locally administered public assistance authorities. Aid included training for vocational work. The Ministry of Health and the Board of Customs and Excise, which administered old age and supplementary pensions, transferred this responsibility to the renamed Assistance Board by 1943.
1941 - 1988
In 1941 the Beveridge Committee on Social Insurance and Allied Services was set up to survey the welfare systems already in place and made recommendations leading to the creation of the National Health Service, under the control of the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of National Insurance, which in 1945 took over ministerial responsibility for the Assistance Board. In 1946 family allowance was introduced, and in 1948 the National Insurance scheme, which encompassed contributory pensions, unemployment benefits, sickness benefits, and medical benefits through the NHS. A childcare scandal in 1948 prompted the Children's Act of the same year which led to the establishment of three distinct departments whose primary functions were public health and social care, welfare of the elderly and disabled, and children.
In 1952 the Assistance Board together with the Ministry of National Insurance merged with the Ministry of Pensions, but the resulting Ministry was dissolved in 1966 and its responsibilities transferred to the Ministry of Social Security. This new Ministry introduced a comprehensive range of benefits which replaced national assistance, including an income stream and rent subsidies for the chronically ill. In addition to these supplementary benefits it continued to administer war pensions and national insurance via regional offices across the UK.
In 1968 the Department of Health and Social Security was created by the merger of the Ministries of Health and Social Security, led by a Secretary of State for Social Services. The DHSS lasted for twenty years, and during this time the Occupational Benefits Board was created and the Supplemental Benefits Commission abolished. A Central Management Services Branch was set up in 1978 to oversee efficiency. In 1988 the department was split again into a separate Department of Health and a Department of Social Security.
1988 - present
The Department of Social Security was administered by a Permanent Secretary and its primary function was benefit provision to pensioners and the disabled, aswell as responsibility for children. The Benefit Fraud Inspectorate also came under the supervision of the DSS. In 2001 the Department for Work and Pensions was formed from the Department of Social Security, taking on the employment function which had been the responsibility of the Department for Education and Employment since the dissolution of the Department of Employment in 1995. Today, the DWP is led by a Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and four Ministers, each with responsibility for work, pensions, children and families and disabled people.
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