social welfare reform

• The Youth Welfare Law (1922) guaranteed children a good standard of education, housing, and healthcare. It increased the number of social workers and improved facilities for caring for abandoned/orphaned children. (high living standards regardless of social class)
• the 8 hour working day was introduced in 1918, previously there was no limit on the amount of hours employees could be forced to work, some even worked up to 18 hours a day. this improved working class morale giving them more time to consume arts and entertainment.
• from 1924-31, over 2 million new homes were built, and 200,000 homeowners were given grants to improve and enlarge their homes. by 1928, homelessness was down over 60%, and the government improved hospitals, schools, electricity, and roads (better public services)
• The Social Insurance Scheme (1927) meant that if a worker suddenly became unemployed without fault of their own, the government would pay some of their waged. this protected over 17 million workers from the effects of unemployment
• War pensions introduced in 1920 made the government spend over 40% of its income on pensions to help people affected by war (e.g. disabled soldiers, widowed wives and orphaned kids). this helped over 2.5 million people