Welfare in transition: reform's income support policy, 1912 - 1928

Abstract

The subject of this thesis is the income support policy of the Reform Government between 1912 and 1928. The study of New Zealand's welfare history has been firmly focused on the evolution of the welfare state. Traditionally the origins of the welfare state are seen in the introduction of old-age pensions in 1898 and social security in 1938. Little attention has been payed to the intervening years, especially the period 1912 to 1928. Yet, if old-age pensions were a significant event in the development of the welfare state, why did it take forty years before the establishment of a comprehensive social security system ? Some have claimed the intervening period was one of reaction to state support and that the evolution of the welfare state stagnated after the reforming zeal of the Liberals. If this is so then it is important to understand why. If welfare did not stagnate under Reform then research into this period will open up new insights into the interpretation of New Zealand's welfare history. The examination of this period was conducted through a series of case-studies covering the spectrum of state involvement in income support schemes. By analysing the nature of the state's income support interventions the motives behind such action was uncovered to improve the understanding of the origins of the welfare state in New Zealand. The results of this investigation showed that the state's role in providing income security grew significantly between 1912 and 1928. However, this growth did not conform to the traditional interpretation of New Zealand's welfare state. State-funded pensions expanded, but not as a tool for income maintenance. Instead the Government viewed pensions as a form of compensation for those suffering exceptional misfortune. Instead, the state looked to social insurance as the principle by which it should establish its role in income security. In doing so, the income support policy of the Reform Government showed many similarities to that of the previous Liberal Administration leading to the conclusion that both shared a common view of the state and its role in welfare provision. Economic development drove state policy up to and beyond 1928. In this context the Government's response to the growing demand for greater state welfare assistance was limited. However, under public pressure to meet growing public welfare expectations the state began to evolve a new conception of its role in economic security. The state was becoming a provider of welfare support, as well as a facilitator of economic development - the growing cost of income support schemes was evidence of that. By 1928 the state was a major provider of income support in New Zealand though the ideological change to the social security of the 1930s was only just under way.