Editing Clement Attlee (section)

====Welfare====
The government set about implementing the Wartime plans of  [[William Beveridge]]'s plans for the creation of a 'cradle to grave' [[welfare state]], and set in place an entirely new system of [[social security]]. Among the most important pieces of legislation was the [[National Insurance Act 1946]], in which people in work paid a flat rate of [[national insurance]]. In return, they (and the wives of male contributors) were eligible for flat-rate pensions, sickness benefit, unemployment benefit, and funeral benefit.<ref name="A History of the British Labour Party">Thorpe, Andrew. (2001) ''A History of the British Labour Party'', Palgrave; {{ISBN|0-333-92908-X}}</ref> Various provisions were included in the [[National Insurance Act 1946]] including unemployment and sickness benefit, maternity grant and attendance allowance, maternity allowance, widow's benefit, widow's pensions in special cases,  guardian's allowance, retirement pension, and death grant.<ref>{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3SZLAQAAIAAJ&dq=National+Insurance+Act+1946+widows+allowance+widowed+mother%27s+allowance&pg=PA807 |chapter=National Insurance Act, 1946 |title=Compendious Abstract of Public General Acts |p=710 |via=Google Books |publisher=HMSO}}</ref>

Various other pieces of legislation provided for [[child benefit]] and support for people with no other source of income.<ref name="A History of the British Labour Party"/> In 1949, unemployment, sickness and maternity benefits were exempted from taxation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/101481 |title=HC S Budget Resolution and Economic Situation |publisher=Margaret Thatcher Foundation |date=5 May 1966 |access-date=20 March 2013}}</ref>

A block grant introduced in 1948 helped the social services provided by local authorities.<ref name="ReferenceC">[[Morgan, Kenneth O.]] ''Labour in Power, 1945–1951''.<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}} Personal Social Services or welfare services were developed in 1948 for individual and families in general, particularly special groups such as the mentally disordered, deprived children, the elderly, and the handicapped.<ref>Byrne, Tony & Colin F. Padfield. ''Social Services: Made Simple''.<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}}

The Attlee Government increased pensions and other benefits, with pensions raised to become more of a living income than they had ever been. War pensions and allowances (for both World Wars) were increased by an act of 1946{{which|date=February 2024}} which gave the wounded man with an allowance for his wife and children if he married after he had been wounded, thereby removing a grievance of more than twenty years standing.<ref name="SocialismThe">''Socialism: The British Way'' (edited by Donald Munro).<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}} Other improvements were made in war pensions during Attlee's tenure as prime minister. A Constant Attendance Allowance was tripled, an Unemployability Allowance was tripled from 10s to 30s a week, and a special hardship allowance of up to £1 a week was introduced. In addition, the 1951 Budget made further improvements in the supplementary allowances for many war pensioners. From 1945 onwards, three out of every four pension claims had been successful, whilst after the First World War only one pension claim in three was allowed.<ref name="auto">''Fifty Facts for Labour'', published by the Labour Party, Transport House, Smith Square, London, SW1, October 1951.</ref> Under the Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1948, employees of a body representative of local authorities or of the officers of local authorities could be admitted "on suitable terms to the superannuation fund of a local authority".<ref name="books.google.co.uk">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PX0oAAAAQBAJ&q=united+kingdom+Superannuation+%28Miscellaneous+Provisions%29+Act+1948&pg=PA210|title=Pension and Widows' and Orphans' Funds|isbn=9781107621749|access-date=9 January 2016| last1=Crabbe|first1=R. J. W.|last2=Poyser|first2=C. A.|date=22 August 2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> In 1951, a comforts allowance was introduced that was automatically paid to war pensioners "receiving unemployability supplement and constant attendance allowance".<ref>''Welfare Policy Under the Conservatives, 1951–1964: A Guide to Documents in the Public Record Office'' by Paul Bridgen and Rodney Lowe</ref>

The Personal injuries (Civilians) Scheme of 1947 included various benefits such as  an exceptional maximum rate of constant attendance allowance of 40s a week, and an allowance for wear and tear of clothing caused by the use of artificial limbs and appliances. In addition, allowances payable while a pensioner underwent inpatient treatment "are normally no longer subject to a deduction in respect of decreased home expenditure." Various changes were also made in respect of gainfully employed persons who sustained war injuries and civil defence volunteers who war service injuries. These included the provision of allowances for the wife and children for injured persons receiving injury allowance or disablement pension, amendments to the provisions for an allowance to a pensioner deemed unemployable by reason of his pensioned disablement "to secure that he receives in the aggregate by way of unemployability allowance and any social service benefits for which he is eligible at least 20s. a week in addition to his pension," increases in the allowance payable for a wife of a person receiving treatment allowance, unemployability allowance or injury allowance under certain conditions and "if no allowance is payable for a wife, an allowance may be granted for a dependant adult," and  a social hardship allowance for partially disabled men "who, though not unemployable, is prevented by his pensioned disablement from resuming his former occupation or taking up one of equivalent standard." Also, "Where a man dies as the direct result of a qualifying injury his widow may be awarded a pension (with allowances for his children) without regard to the date of marriage."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TYRQAQAAIAAJ&dq=United+kingdom+personal+injury+civilian+scheme+1946&pg=PA1595 |title=Statutory Rules and Orders Other Than Those of a Local, Personal, Or Temporary Character 1947 |pages=1589-1638}}</ref>

A more extensive system of social welfare benefits<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Clement_Attlee/Tn27AAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Clement+Attlee+National+Insurance+Act+1946&pg=PA79&printsec=frontcover |title=Clement Attlee |first= Jerry |last=Hardman Brookshire |year= 1995 |p=79}}</ref><ref>[https://www.historyisnowmagazine.com/blog/2024/10/18/the-british-labour-party-and-welfare-the-legacies-of-the-attlee-and-wilson-governments ''The British Labour Party and Welfare: The Legacies of the Attlee and Wilson Governments'' By Vittorio Trevitt, Published by History Is Now, October 20, 2024]</ref><ref>[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Ideas_and_Economic_Crises_in_Britain_fro/KoRCAdfkAfEC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Clement+Attlee+National+Insurance+Act+1946&pg=PA62&printsec=frontcover ''Ideas and Economic Crises in Britain from Attlee to Blair (1945-2005)'' By Matthias Matthijs, 2012, P.62]</ref> had been established by the Attlee Government, which did much to reduce acute social deprivation. The cumulative impact of the Attlee's Government's health and welfare policies was such that all the indices of health (such as statistics of school medical or dental officers, or of medical officers of health) showed signs of improvement, with continual improvements in survival rates for infants and increased life expectancy for the elderly.<ref name="ReferenceC"/> The success of the Attlee Government's welfare legislation in reducing poverty was such that, in the general election of 1950, according to one study, "Labour propaganda could make much of the claim that social security had eradicated the most abject destitution of the 1930s".{{sfn|Jefferys|2014}}{{page needed|date=May 2024}}