Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

From National Insurance in 1911 to Employment and Support Allowance

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Gender, Work and Social Control

Part of the book series: Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies ((PSLS))

  • 365 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the legislative changes in incapacity benefits between 1911 and the present day. It summarises the provisions of the National Insurance Act 1911, including the governance of the scheme through a system of Approved Societies, regulation by central government and mechanisms for appeal. The foundation of the post-Second World War welfare state brought about changes to the incapacity benefit scheme through the National Insurance Act 1946. This set the scheme on a wholly statutory basis with a new network of decision making and appeals mechanisms. An expansion of benefits for disabled people in the 1970s brought the highly discriminatory Housewives Non-Contributory Invalidity Pension. Contraction in the welfare state brought Incapacity Benefit in the 1990s and Employment and Support Allowance in 2008.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Archive sources are from the National Archives in London unless otherwise specified. See Appendix for full details of archive sources.

  2. 2.

    The names for the adjudicators at appeal hearings changed over the course of this period. I will use the term adjudicators in the book for simplicity.

References

  • Adler, Michael. 2018. Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment? Benefit Sanctions in the UK. Basingstoke: Palgrave Pivot.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beveridge, Sir William. 1942. Social Insurance and Allied Services. Cmnd. 6404. London: HMSO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonner, David. 2008. ‘Employment and Support Allowance: Helping the Sick and Disabled to Return to Work?’ Journal of Social Security Law 15(4): 123–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borsay, Anne. 2004. Disability and Social Policy in Britain Since 1750: A History of Exclusion. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buck, Trevor, David Bonner, and Roy Sainsbury. 2005. Making Social Security Law: The Role and Work of the Social Security and Child Support Commissioners. Aldershot: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clasen, Jochen, and Daniel Clegg. 2007. ‘Levels and Levers of Conditionality: Measuring Change Within Welfare States’. In Investigating Welfare State Change: The Dependent Variable Problem in Comparative Analysis, edited by Jochen Clasen and Nico Siegel. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Disney, Richard, and Steven Webb. 1991. ‘Why Are There So Many Long Term Sick in Britain’. Economic Journal 101: 252–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dwyer, Peter. 2016. ‘Citizenship, Conduct and Conditionality: Sanction and Support in the 21st Century UK Welfare State’. In Social Policy Review 28: Analysis and Debate in Social Policy, 2016, edited by Menno Fenger, John Hudson, and Catherine Needham, 41. Bristol: Policy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dwyer, Peter, and Sharon Wright. 2014. ‘Universal Credit, Ubiquitous Conditionality and Its Implications for Social Citizenship’. Journal of Poverty and Social Justice 22 (1): 27–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foster, William Justus, and FG Taylor. 1937. National Health Insurance. 3rd ed. London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geiger, Ben Baumberg. 2017. ‘Benefits Conditionality for Disabled People: Stylised Facts from a Review of International Evidence and Practice’. Journal of Poverty and Social Justice 25 (2): 107–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gregg, Paul. 2008. Realising Potential: A Vision for Conditionality and Support. London: DWP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grover, Chris, and Linda Piggott. 2010. ‘From Incapacity Benefit to Employment and Support Allowance: Social Sorting, Sickness and Impairment, and Social Security’. Policy Studies 31: 265–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gulland, Jackie. 2018. ‘Appellant Knowledge and Representation in Early Twentieth Century Sickness Benefit Tribunals’ (Unpublished paper).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hampton, Jameel. 2016. Disability and the Welfare State in Britain: Changes in Perception and Policy 1948–79. Bristol: Policy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, Bernard. 2004. The Origins of the British Welfare State: Society, State, and Social Welfare in England and Wales, 1800–1945. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, Neville. 2000. ‘Beveridge and Beyond: The Shift from Insurance to Means-Testing’. In Social Security Law in Context, edited by Neville Harris. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, Phil, Mauricea Lynch, and Ian Molho. 1991. ‘An Econometric Analysis of the Growth in Numbers Claiming Invalidity Benefit: An Overview’. Journal of Social Policy 20 (1): 87–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, Margaret, and Rodney Lowe. 2002. From Beveridge to Blair: The First Fifty Years of Britain’s Welfare State 1948–98. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence, Charles. 1926. Report of the Royal Commission on National Health Insurance Cmd. 2596. London: HMSO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lonsdale, Susan. 1993. ‘Invalidity Benefit an International Comparison’. London: DSS Analytical Services Division, Social Research Branch.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lowe, Rodney. 1993. The Welfare State in Britain Since 1945. Basingstoke: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Micklethwait, Robert. 1976. The National Insurance Commissioners. Hamlyn Lectures. London: Stevens. https://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/law/hamlyn/lectures/archive.

  • Ministry of Health. 1921. Second Annual Report of the Ministry of Health, 1920–1921. Cmd. 1446. London: HMSO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mullen, Tom. 2016. ‘Access to Justice in Administrative Law and Administrative Justice’. In Access to Justice: Beyond the Policies and Politics of Austerity, edited by Ellie Palmer, Tom Cornford, Yseult Marique, and Marique Guinchard. Oxford: Hart Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Health Insurance Commission. 1912. National Insurance Act 1911 Model Rules. London: HMSO.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Health Insurance Joint Committee. 1914. National Health Insurance. Report of the Departmental Committee on Sickness Benefit Claims Under the National Insurance Act. Cd. 7687. London: HMSO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patrick, Ruth. 2011. ‘Disabling or Enabling: The Extension of Work-Related Conditionality to Disabled People’. Social Policy and Society 10 (3): 309–320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patrick, Ruth, Patience Seebohm, and Lawrence M. Mead. 2011. ‘The Wrong Prescription: Disabled People and Welfare Conditionality’. Policy & Politics 39 (2): 275–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Safford, Archibald. 1954. ‘The Creation of Case Law Under the National Insurance and National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Acts’. Modern Law Review 17: 197–210.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thane, Pat. 1996. Foundations of the Welfare State. 2nd ed. London: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Timmins, Nicholas. 1995. The Five Giants: A Biography of the Welfare State. London: HarperCollins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, Alfred W. 1922. National Health Insurance. Report by the Government Actuary on the Valuations of the Assets and Liabilities of Approved Societies as at 31st December 1918. Cmd. 1662. London: HMSO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watts, Beth, Suzanne Fitzpatrick, Glen Bramley, and David Watkins. 2014. Welfare Sanctions and Conditionality in the UK. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whiteside, Noel. 1983. ‘Private Agencies for Public Purposes: Some New Perspectives on Policy Making in Health Insurance Between the Wars’. Journal of Social Policy 12: 165–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1987. ‘Counting the Cost: Sickness and Disability Among Working People in an Era of Industrial Recession, 1920–1939’. Economic History Review XL: 228–46.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Edinburgh, UK

    Jackie Gulland

Authors
  1. Jackie Gulland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jackie Gulland .

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Gulland, J. (2019). From National Insurance in 1911 to Employment and Support Allowance. In: Gender, Work and Social Control. Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60564-1_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60564-1_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-60562-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-60564-1

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation