page_title: Harold Wilson
section_title: Social Services and welfare
hierarchical_section_title: Harold Wilson / First period as Prime Minister (1964–1970) / Domestic affairs / Social Services and welfare
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a photograph of Harold Wilson visiting an Retirement Home in Washington, UK. The photograph was taken at some point in the late 1960s. Reference: 5417/101 This collection of images has been assembled in support of the Washington Heritage Festival 2013. The celebration of Washington brings together a variety of different themes. Washington is a Town in the City of Sunderland, Tyne &amp; Wear. It is traditionally associated with Coal Industry, and notably known as the home of the Washington Family, ancestors of the First President of the United States George Washington. However, in 1964 Washington was designated a New Town and drastically changed. With the introduction of new industry such as the Nissan Car Factory Washington experienced a huge redevelopment in both its economy and community. These Photographs are taken from the Records of the Washington Development Corporation; held at Tyne &amp; Wear Archives. The records document this change in industry, landscape and community in Washington between 1964 &amp; 1988, and consist of many photographs. For more information on the Washington Heritage Festival, 21st September 2013 please click http://www.sunderlandlive.co.uk/washington-heritage-festival. (Copyright) These images are Crown Copyright. We're happy for you to share these digital images within the spirit of The Commons. Please cite 'Tyne &amp; Wear Archives &amp; Museums' when reusing. Certain restrictions on high quality reproductions and commercial use of the original physical version apply though; if you're unsure please email archives@twmuseums.org.uk
context_page_description: James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, PC, FRS, FSS was a British Labour politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1976.
  Entering Parliament in 1945, Wilson was appointed a parliamentary secretary in the Attlee ministry and rose quickly through the ministerial ranks; he became Secretary for Overseas Trade in 1947 and was elevated to Cabinet shortly thereafter as President of the Board of Trade. In opposition to the next Conservative government, he served as Shadow Chancellor and Shadow Foreign Secretary. After Labour Party leader Hugh Gaitskell died suddenly in 1963, Wilson won the subsequent leadership election. After narrowly winning the 1964 general election, Wilson saw an increased majority in a snap election in 1966.
  Wilson's first period as Prime Minister coincided with a period of low unemployment and relative economic prosperity, though hindered by significant problems with Britain's external balance of payments. In 1969 he sent British troops to Northern Ireland.
context_section_description: According to Tony Atkinson, social security received much more attention from the first Wilson government than it did during the previous thirteen years of Conservative government. Following its victory in the 1964 general election, Wilson's government began to increase social benefits. Prescription charges for medicines were abolished immediately, while pensions were raised to a record 21% of average male industrial wages. In 1966, the system of National Assistance (a social assistance scheme for the poor) was overhauled and renamed Supplementary Benefit. The means test was replaced with a statement of income, and benefit rates for pensioners (the great majority of claimants) were increased, granting them a real gain in income. Before the 1966 election, the widow's pension was tripled. Due to austerity measures following an economic crisis, prescription charges were re-introduced in 1968 as an alternative to cutting the hospital building programme, although those sections of the population who were most in need (including supplementary benefit claimants, the long-term sick, children, and pensioners) were exempted from charges.
  The widow's earning rule was also abolished, while a range of new social benefits was introduced. An Act was passed which replaced National Assistance with Supplementary Benefits. The new Act laid down that people who satisfied its conditions were entitled to these noncontributory benefits. Unlike the National Assistance scheme, which operated like state charity for the worst-off, the new Supplementary Benefits scheme was a right of every citizen who found himself or herself in severe difficulties. Those persons over the retirement age with no means who were considered to be unable to live on the basic pension (which provided less than what the government deemed as necessary for subsistence) became entitled to a "long-term" allowance of an extra few shillings a week. Some simplification of the procedure for claiming benefits was also introduced. From 1966, an exceptionally severe disablement allowance was added, "for those claimants receiving constant attendance allowance which was paid to those with the higher or intermediate rates of constant attendance allowance and who were exceptionally severely disabled." Redundancy payments were introduced in 1965 to lessen the impact of unemployment, and earnings-related benefits for maternity, unemployment, sickness, industrial injuries and widowhood were introduced in 1966, followed by the replacement of flat-rate family allowances with an earnings-related scheme in 1968. From July 1966 onwards, the temporary allowance for widow of severely disabled pensioners was extended from 13 to 26 weeks.
  Increases were made in pensions and other benefits during Wilson's first year in office that were the largest ever real term increases carried out up until that point. Social security benefits were markedly increased during Wilson's first two years in office, as characterised by a budget passed in the final quarter of 1964 which raised the standard benefit rates for old age, sickness and invalidity by 18.5%. In 1965, the government increased the national assistance rate to a higher level relative to earnings, and via annual adjustments, broadly maintained the rate at between 19% and 20% of gross industrial earnings until the start of 1970. In the five years from 1964 up until the last increases made by the First Wilson Government, pensions went up by 23% in real terms, supplementary benefits by 26% in real terms, and sickness and unemployment benefits by 153% in real terms (largely as a result of the introduction of earnings-related benefits in 1967).
caption: Wilson on a visit to a retirement home in Washington, Tyne and Wear
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