Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Preface
- Part I The rise of pensioning
- 1 Savings, work and old age in Victorian Britain
- 2 Rival pioneers of collectivism: pensions, the state and employers (1899–1927)
- 3 The insurance challenge (1927–56)
- 4 The state: partner or competitor? (1940–78)
- 5 Competition and professionalization: the maturing of the pension market (1956–79)
- Part II The shaping of the modern pensions institution
- Epilogue: Contemporary critics and the future of pensions
- Statistical appendix
- A note on sources
- Notes
- Index
2 - Rival pioneers of collectivism: pensions, the state and employers (1899–1927)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Preface
- Part I The rise of pensioning
- 1 Savings, work and old age in Victorian Britain
- 2 Rival pioneers of collectivism: pensions, the state and employers (1899–1927)
- 3 The insurance challenge (1927–56)
- 4 The state: partner or competitor? (1940–78)
- 5 Competition and professionalization: the maturing of the pension market (1956–79)
- Part II The shaping of the modern pensions institution
- Epilogue: Contemporary critics and the future of pensions
- Statistical appendix
- A note on sources
- Notes
- Index
Summary
The need of pension provision for employees upon retirement extends as our system of commerce and industry tends to concentration, and men become more and more dependent upon an organization and less and less able to influence their own destiny …
John C. Mitchell, Chairman, Association of Superannuation and Pension Funds, ‘Pension schemes for office staff’ address, February 1935, p. 3.The rising pressure by the local poor law authorities to limit expenditure on the old was paralleled from the 1870s by a growing tide of opinion favouring a national system of pensions to deal more generously and comprehensively with the problem of old age poverty. Opponents of state pensions advocated self-help and pointed to the disincentive effects of state nannying; supporters suggested that a national pension system would be more likely to encourage thrift if pensions were given widely and without the penalties associated with the poor law. There was some division among supporters on whether national pensions should be contributory like Bismarck's scheme in Germany or financed from general taxation. Gradually the supporters of state pensions gained political ground. Middleclass social reformers pointed to the extent of poverty in old age shown by social surveys, and politicians were increasingly conscious of the potential popularity of a more humane system of pensioning among the working classes. The labour movement, initially hesitant about old age pensions, switched to supporting them by the first decade of the twentieth century, and this may have been one factor propelling the Liberal government of 1906 toward a national scheme.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Inventing RetirementThe Development of Occupational Pensions in Britain, pp. 15 - 30Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1986