From Means-tested Assistance to the Insurance Principle: There and Back Again

This article examines the historical shift in Britain from means-tested assistance to the insurance principle, beginning with the early 20th-century Poor Law crisis. The 1911 National Insurance Act laid the foundations later expanded by the Beveridge Report and post-WWII Labour legislation, marking a move towards universalism in social policy. However, by the late 1950s and early 1960s, legal reforms – such as the decline of flat-rate contributions and the return to means-testing – foreshadowed the emerging crisis of the Welfare State. This legal-historical analysis offers insights into welfare legislation’s evolution and its relevance to current policy challenges.