HIGHER MODERN STUDIES ESSAY WRITING REVISION

TITLE: Provision of healthcare and welfare

• There are two main schools of thought on the question of who should be responsible
for health and welfare provision—collectivism and individualism.
PARAGRAPH 1: Collectivism
• The original ideals of the welfare state, as outlined in the Beveridge report, were the
inspiration of British social policy from 1948 – 1979.
• The principles of the welfare state were essentially “collectivist”.
• Collectivists believe that society and the government, in the interests of fairness and
equality, should be responsible for all of its citizens.
• This view is often associated with the Labour Party and the SNP.
• The government has a duty to provide services such as health and education for all.
• The SNP government in Scotland abolished prescription charges in 2011 and are
currently looking to implement minimum pricing on alcohol.
• The government should provide a comprehensive system of social insurance to all
citizens ‘from the cradle to grave’.
• The collectivist approach is that all working people should pay a contribution to the
state in the form of taxes and National Insurance Contributions.
• The Government’s role is to provide full employment for all working age citizens.
• State education for all children.
• Housing provided by local authorities to make sure that anyone who could not afford to
or did not wish to buy, could have a comfortable home.
• If the state provides these essential services the nation will be healthier.
• Everyone will be better educated. As a result employment opportunities will be better.
• A National Health Service, free at the point of use and available to all.
• The NHS, as part of the wider reform of public health, such as better housing, means
in theory that sickness can be prevented, rather than cured.
• Benefits should be paid to the unemployed, the sick, the retired and the widowed.
• The collectivist view is that there is a minimum standard of living in Britain below which
nobody should fall.
21st century challenges to collectivism
Ageing population
• The proportion of older people in the population is rising.
• Occupational pension schemes are being abandoned by companies so it is likely more
state help, as well as more private savings, will be needed.
• Tough decisions were made by the UK Coalition Government.
• All Britons will be forced to wait an extra year for their state pension with everyone
qualifying at age 67 by April 2028.
• The Government has also proposed changes to public sector pensions.
• These will result in workers having to: pay more into their pension, work for longer and
accept a pension based on a "career average" salary, rather than the current final
salary arrangement which currently applies to many workers.
Lone parents
• Nearly ¼ children in Britain live in a single-parent family.
• Such children are often very well cared for and financially secure.
• However there is a considerable cost to the welfare state in supporting lone parents.
• There is also a wider cost to society in dealing with the effects of poor parenting.
• The UK Government (in England only) is attempting to solve the problem of what it
calls "troubled families".
 • It believes that there are 120,000 households across England where children are not
being properly looked after.
• Troubled families cost the taxpayer £9 billion every year.
• UK Government has promised local authorities in England up to £4,000 to deal with
each family: by reducing truancy, youth crime and anti-social behaviour, or putting
parents back into work.
NEETs/More Choices More Chances
• Recent years have seen the rise in numbers of the so-called NEETs.
• NEETs present the welfare state with challenges and costs.
• A study by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) estimates that each new
NEET dropping out of education at 16 will cost taxpayers an average of £97,000 during
their lifetime, some more than £300,000 apiece.
• They are, 50% more likely to suffer from poor health; 60% more likely to be involved
with drugs and more than 20 times more likely to become criminals.
PARAGRAPH 2: Individualism
• Those who oppose this view are described as individualists. The Conservative Party is
the party most closely associated with individualism.
• Individualists believe that it is the individual’s responsibility to secure a decent quality
of life, not the state’s. Individual responsibility and private ownership should be
promoted.
• Low taxation to encourage self-reliance and hard work.
• Inequalities in health can be explained by “lifestyle choices” such as smoking, drinking
too much, or eating unhealthy foods, which lead to lower life expectancy.
• The individual should take much more responsibility for their health care, to the extent
of taking out private membership of gyms and health insurance.
• They believe that a cradle-to-grave system of benefits creates a “nanny state” and a
dependency culture.
• Former Prime Minister Thatcher is the person most identified with the individualist
ideology. Her Conservative Governments of the 1980s rolled back the state.
• Her ideas of individualism live on in the modern Conservative Party.
• Charles Murray, an American sociologist claims welfare benefits for single-parents
have encouraged the decline of the family.
• He believes this has encouraged a counter-culture which devalues work, encourages
criminality and a dependency-culture.
• He claims Britain will see an “underclass” develop who will avoid "normal" work and
live a life of crime, illegitimacy and government “dependency”.
• Former Prime Minister David Cameron developed the idea of the “Big Society”.
• Cameron wanted to “heal” our so-called broken society by encouraging greater
individual responsibility, a traditional Conservative approach to social policy.
• He wanted to use the voluntary sector to help those prepared to face up to their
problems, thus reducing the scope and size of the state.
• The Government has set up “vanguard communities”.
• In these communities, individuals and voluntary groups are funded to take over duties
previously provided by the state.
• They can run housing projects, schools and youth groups.
• Former Chancellor George Osborne used slogans like 'strivers not shirkers'.
Cutting dependency
• The UK Coalition Government introduced wide ranging welfare reform in 2013.
• A single universal credit.
• Changes to the disability living allowance.
• Private companies given contracts to get the unemployed back to work.
• Those refusing to work facing a maximum three-year loss of benefits.
• Annual benefit cap of about £26,000 per family.
• The so-called ‘bedroom tax’ has also been introduced.
• Those on benefits can have their housing benefit cut if the Government believes they
have surplus bedrooms in their house.
• It is argued that the Big Society is individualist Conservatives slashing the state on
ideological grounds.
• It is claimed that the Conservatives just do not like the welfare state.
• The Big Society, therefore, is an attempt at American style social services, where
volunteers and charities fund hospitals and schools, rather than the state.
• In reality, some people, in some communities, have greater talents, skills, time and
connections than others.
• The already well off and well educated will be able to take advantage of the Big
Society and create fantastic schools and sporting facilities in their areas.
• The poor and the powerless will be left further behind, effectively ending the welfare
state.