Beveridge, W. (1942) Social Insurance and Allied Services (The Beveridge Report)

Abstract

William Beveridge was an economist whose first well-known work on poverty involved a collaboration with Beatrice Webb on the 1909 Poor Law’s report for the Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George. Beveridge became director of Labour Exchanges after helping their establishment through his government research on unemployment and during the First World War. He was responsible for devising the system of rationing in Britain (later influenced by John Boyd Orr). From 1919 to 1937 he was director of the London School of Economics, after which he moved to the University of Oxford. At the request of the British government he produced the Social Insurance and Allied Services report in 1942 which proposed ‘cradle to the grave’ social security for all. This quickly became known as the ‘Beveridge Report’ and it is from the first few pages of this influencial report that the Summary that follows is taken.