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WORKING-CLASS EXPERIENCE AND STATE SOCIAL WELFARE, 1908–1914: OLD AGE PENSIONS RECONSIDERED

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2003

MARTIN PUGH
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Abstract

The debate over the popularity or otherwise of state social reform has been inhibited by the lack of contemporary sources. This article seeks to advance our understanding of working-class experience of the 1908 pensions scheme by utilizing the material in Post Office archives and the local press. It argues that the scheme was implemented in ways calculated to reassure the beneficiaries, that it promoted the independence of the elderly, that it reached more people than is usually thought, and that it helped to modify popular attitudes towards the state.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , December 2002 , pp. 775 - 796
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I am grateful to the British Academy Small Grants in the Humanities for supporting the research on which this article is based.