How Comprehensive were the Liberal Social
             Between the years of 1906 to 1914 the Liberal Party made considerable changes to the role of the state by introducing a number of reforms aimed at helping different groups of people rise above the poverty line and lead a better quality of life. These groups of people included children, the elderly, sick or injured people, exploited workers and the unemployed. Many of these acts only included people in specific conditions, which means a lot of people were excluded by these acts. But the very fact they were put in place helped at least some people and provided the foundations of a welfare state.
             The reform aimed at helping the elderly was the Old Age Pension Act 1908. This entitled men and women aged seventy or above up to five shillings a week if they were earning less than £31 and ten shillings per year. People were also excluded from the pension scheme if they had been in prison in the last ten years or were claiming poor relief. This means a pension was practically available to every elderly person with a very small income. This would suggest the OAP Act was very comprehensive. However it must be taken into consideration the age attainment required to claim a pension. At this time seventy was considered very elderly and most people, in particular the poor, wouldn't live to this age. This means that a lot of people would still have to work until their death, which contradicts the point of a pension. This would suggest that the pension wasn't very comprehensive. By 1912 970 000 people were covered by the pension scheme costing the government 12 million a year. This shows that the pension scheme must have made a substantial impact on society and even though the pension only provided the very elderly with a small amount of money each week it must have helped them lead a better quality of life until death. The OAP Act could have been more comprehensive by including...