younger people in the scheme, but at this time there had never been a scheme like this before, so the Liberals had to come up with a way of funding it. If they had made the pension scheme too available they could have bankrupt the country. This Act also provided a foundation in which it could be revised and improved as there had been no attempts made by the government to take responsibility for the welfare of the elderly. The OAP Act of 1908 was as comprehensive as feasibly possible at the time.
             The reforms aimed at helping Children were The Education Act (Provision of Meals) 1906, The Education Act (Administrative Provisions) 1907 and The Children's Act 1908. The Provision of Meals Act gave the local authorities the right to use some of the local tax payers' money to provide free school meals for those most in need. However this act was not made compulsory. This put the local authorities in a difficult position because in order to fund free meals they would have to raise taxes and justify why. This could be met by a lot of opposition from the residents especially from those whose children would not benefit from this. Another reason why the tax payers and possibly even the local authorities might oppose the Provision of Meals Act is because there was a general laissez-faire attitude amongst society, which means they believed people should help themselves get out of poverty. Being given a free meal each day could be construed as a "hand out" to some people. In light of the potential opposition the local authorities faced many decide
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