The postwar welfare state was built around the idea of citizenship as an inclusive concept compensating for the inequalities of class and of the market. This social democratic consensus required a strong bureaucratic state as provider of services designed to improve conditions in a capitalist society. Social democrats believe in a reformist welfare state, a state “capable of enhancing the welfare of all” (Kearns, 1997, p 12). The concept of citizenship defined the relationship between individuals and the state and mediated entitlements to state organised welfare:

It was assumed that the state, or experts, knew best (Alcock, 1989; Sullivan, 1998). They were possessors of information, in an unequal relationship in which potential users were regarded as passive recipients. The corollary is a state that accepts responsibility to inform, and sets up the administration to do so. Effective information about all benefits to all citizens would need to be an integral part of the new welfare state. Writing about the postwar services, Marshall (1967, p 118) was convinced that government had to be proactive:

National Assistance, 1948-66

The new benefits that resulted from the 1946 National Insurance Act and the 1948 National Assistance Act followed the recommendations of the 1942 Beveridge Report, ‘Social Insurance and Allied Services’. They formed part of wider radical social policy reforms that together became known as the ‘welfare state’. The report led to a new system of financial assistance for those without other adequate income. It caught the imagination of a large majority of the population of wartime Britain, a time during which previously unknown levels of poverty had been revealed. There was anticipation of a better future, and therefore popular support for, and sympathy with, proposals for social reform (Fraser, 1984; Lowe, 1990).

The ground had been well prepared for government dissemination of information about the new services and benefits by Beveridge himself.