Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of acronyms
- About the author
- Acknowledgements
- one Introduction
- two The old regime: provision for disabled people before the welfare state
- three Promotional welfare, 1948–63
- four The emergence of disabled people, 1964–69
- five Cinderella of the welfare state: legislation for disabled people, 1970–72
- six The final days: disability at the end of the welfare state, 1973–79
- seven The last waltz: epilogue
- eight Conclusions
- Appendix: Ministerial periods of office
- Bibliography
- Index
four - The emergence of disabled people, 1964–69
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of acronyms
- About the author
- Acknowledgements
- one Introduction
- two The old regime: provision for disabled people before the welfare state
- three Promotional welfare, 1948–63
- four The emergence of disabled people, 1964–69
- five Cinderella of the welfare state: legislation for disabled people, 1970–72
- six The final days: disability at the end of the welfare state, 1973–79
- seven The last waltz: epilogue
- eight Conclusions
- Appendix: Ministerial periods of office
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Timeline, 1964–69
1964
October General Election: Labour (317), Conservatives (304), Liberals (9). Peggy Herbison becomes Minister of Pensions and National Insurance.
November The Houghton Review of Social Security begins. The Official Committee on the Elderly, Chronic Sick and Handicapped is created. IMF loan.
1965 Public expenditure continues to expand amidst balance of payment crises.
May Megan du Boisson and Berit Thornberry found the Disablement Income Group.
December The poor and the poorest is published, to be followed by the creation of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG).
1966
February General Election: Labour (364), Conservatives (253), Liberals (12), Republican Labour (1).
Spring After recognising poverty among workers in 1964 and 1965, the TUC begins to discover the problems facing chronically sick workers.
Summer DIG is responsible for a series of questions in the House of Commons in which Herbison comes under unprecedented scrutiny about the lack of statutory provision for disabled people.
June Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance Working Group on cash benefits for the disabled is created.
August Department of Social Security is created.
December Shelter is created. Range of pressures that affected the Wilson government's limited resources for social spending continue to increase.
1967 DIG begins to receive regular media coverage.
May Peter Townsend's speech, ‘The disabled in society’.
June DIG falls into financial crisis and is rescued by £1,000 in private donations.
July Judith Hart becomes Minister of Social Security.
November Devaluation.
1968 Disabled people become a regular topic in the media and in the House of Commons
July Seebohm report on PSS.
November The DHSS is established. Richard Crossman becomes Secretary of State for Social Services.
1969
January Crossman announces an Attendance Allowance for severely disabled people in the White Paper on Superannuation and Social Security.
May Megan du Boisson dies.
Introduction
For 15 years after their exclusion from the welfare state settlement, concern for disabled people was limited to a small number of groups and individuals. While public and parliamentary pressure began to develop in the late 1950s and early 1960s, their welfare was still largely considered only indirectly, via more politically expedient issues.
It was in the mid-1960s when the comparatively small and latent concern broke the surface at various points in the policy-making nexus.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Disability and the Welfare State in BritainChanges in Perception and Policy 1948-79, pp. 83 - 132Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2016