The Beveridge Report: Its origins and outcomes

The Beveridge Committee had an inauspicious start. It was intended by the British government to be a minor tidying‐up operation. When the report was completed, the government seriously considered not publishing it. The report advocated family allowances, a free health service and full employment, and that all social insurance benefits should be at flat rate and at subsistence level with the aim of abolishing poverty. But the actual recommendations would not have fully achieved Beveridge's aims. Although the report had a rapturous media reception, the government initially decided not to commit itself to action. But pressure from parliament forced Prime Minister Churchill to produce plans for legislation. When the report finally became law, the benefits were about a third less than Beveridge had recommended. As a result his social assistance safety net, intended to have a very small role, ended up giving ultimate protection to some 7 million persons. The report had a major influence in other countries by setting a much more ambitious agenda for social security than had generally been accepted before.