It is widely claimed that Britain is the first large nation in the world to have acknowledged that giving help

to citizens who need is part of the governments duty and to have set up welfare state (ODriscoll, 1995), which can be defined as a system that government is responsible for providing people who are old, sick and do not have jobs with money and medical care (Mick, 2003). Before twentieth century welfare was thought to be given to the local communities, but the care provided in the workhouse where the poor and the sick were treated was poor. Then in the first half twentieth century, three welfare benefits small old-age pension system, limited sickness and unemployment insurance and unemployment benefits based on the regular contributions and proof of need were brought in. Real momentum for the welfare system started in 1942 by Beveridge. In 1948, National Health Service was set up and National Health Act turned to law (ODriscoll, 1995). However, on its way to develop welfare system not all the policies provided are beneficial to citizens. This essay will explore the benefits and drawbacks of Britains welfare system.

There are five key aspects of the welfare system. They are social security, health, housing, education and personal social services (Anon, n.d). These policies are considered to provide the citizens with a number of benefits. They have standard old-age pension, which occupies the greatest proportion in the welfare system. It supplies money for all retired people who have contributions on the national insurance for a large part of their working lives. This measure

can encourage people to work harder during young time and ensure that they can have a relatively adequate income after retiring. Also it is less possible for them to live worse and depend much on their children. In addition, there is income support for those who have had no additional savings for a long time or who have wage but still need extra money (ODriscoll, 1995), in order not to let those really need help lose chance to live better. It may represent the aspect in human nature, for everyone is possible to have time to be hopeless, at that time the aid from the government is supportive in deed.

The National Health Service which is known as NHS is generally recognized as the jewel in the crown of the welfare system (ODriscoll, 1995). And it is reported that more than 90% of all health care in British is offered by the government through NHS. Its aim is to improve the health of the whole country. In order to achieve its goal NHS makes several health care free to the nation, which meets the need of patients and makes the best to satisfy the citizens in poor areas who cannot spend enough money on health care or medicine care. As is known, a good health is the most important in ones life, without it people cannot work better and cannot live better. So it is fairy necessary for the country to set up a system to guarantee that everyone, no matter he is rich or poor, is able to equally receive a health care.

Education Welfare Service is working mainly for children and young people to

ensure that they can gain as many benefits as possible from the education provided for them. It aims at providing schools with effective and efficient services, so that students can get better facilities on education. Also, it offers guidance on the problem about attendance to both students and parents (Devon Country Council, 2007). Since it is widely recognized that a good education is linked with economy, safety and many other aspects of the whole country, the Education Welfare Service is important to the progress of the nation.

However, the welfare was once regarded as the security from the cradle to the grave by an editor from The Times (Mick, 2003). Although welfare does do a lot benefits to the citizens, it still has its own shortages. According to a report, poverty among the children and pensioners has reduced, while there is a rising number in the adults who have a low paid, poor health and with no home living in (Firth, 2004). That means the social needs is gradually increasing and the government has to spend a large amount of money supporting those people. Britains National Audit Office (2007) reported that there are almost 3 million British unemployed households costing the country just about $26 billion in one year. While after those people get money, they may not think about finding a job or working harder to earn money, so there will be more and more people who have no passion on work and are just satisfied with receiving money and food from the government. As a result, the economic pressures are growing

rapidly. It can be seen that the welfare system including those free policies or fund supply in Britain may not only make them dependent and less active, but also burden the national economy.

Another drawback is that the welfare system just simply gives people long term social security benefits to ensure everyone is getting better (Hutton, 2007). Thus many citizens often take the advantage of the leak of welfare to treat as illness in order to get fund without going to work. Alistair Darling (2007), secretary of state for work and pension, announced that among the people who get relief, there are only one thirds truly need help while the other two thirds are able to go back to work. And this causes 7 billion costs on the health and medical care every year. Likewise, treatment brings a large economic pressure to the state and let people become much lazier. And also make it unfair to those who work hard, because they have to work very hard to support themselves while those who treat to get fund just do nothing.

To sum up, it is gradually accepted that the welfare system conducted now has a great value to the progress of Britain. However, due to the existent disadvantages, it still has a long way to be improved and meet the needs of the citizens. The beneficial polities will still remain to support and help those who really need. Nevertheless, the deficient ones need improved to alleviate the pressure on social economy and other problems. Today more and more

countries are paying attention to welfare, for instance, China is now promoting welfare actively and raising funds for the elderly, orphans and the disabled (Peoples Daily, 2007). It is widely believed that as long as the policies are well brought into effect, there will be less people who live in poor or cannot afford the basic health care and education.

References: Carpenter, Mick (2003) Welfare state, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press Devon Country Council (2007) Education Welfare. [online], 1 December. Available at: <http://www.devon.gov.uk/index/learning/supporting-children/health_welfare/e ducation_welfare/ews_about.htm> [30 November 2007] James ODriscoll (1995) Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press M. Faith (2004) Single Adults Become The Forgotten Poor. The Independent [online], 1 December. Available at: <http://www.bl.uk/welfarereform/issue66/welfstuk.html> [27 November 2007] Peoples Daily (2004) China establishes social welfare system with various channels. [online], 7 September. Available at: <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200409/07/eng20040907_156182.html> [2 December 2007] Rt. Hon. John Hutton (2007) Globalisation and the Future of the Welfare State: Towards a New Socio-Economic Model. [online], 16 March. Available at: <http://www.policy-network.net/uploadedFiles/Events/Events/John%20Hutton %20Chile%20speech.pdf> [2 December 2007] The Welfare State after 1948 (n.d) Social policy in the United Kingdom [online]. Available at: <http://www2.rgu.ac.uk/publicpolicy/introduction/uk.htm> [26 November 2007] Welfare Costing Britain $26 Billion a Year. (2007) Moldova. org [online], 19 July. Available at: < http://politicom.moldova.org/stiri/eng/60054/> [29 November 2007]