Happy anniversary to the NHS and the Pension (updated)

This year has seen important anniversaries of two key items of social legislation - the National Health Service and Old Age Pensions.

The National Health Service began on July 5th, 1948 under Nye Bevan as Labour Minister of Health, despite opposition by the Conservative Party and the British Medical Association. Who can imagine these bodies opposing it now? How times have changed.

Read this excellent BBC article on the birth of the NHS.

My own family must have been very grateful for the new NHS as I was born within its first year - one of the first generation of NHS babies.

(As Jock Coates has commented, whilst the NHS was instituted by a Labour government, the overall plan for the welfare state of which it was a big founding part was of course the work of a Liberal, William Beveridge)

The Old Age Pensions Act was passed on 1st August, 1908 under the Liberal government of Asquith (not Lloyd George as I originally said - thanks Jock for this correction also). The first payments were made on 1st January 1909 - 5 shillings (25 pence) for those 70 and over. As another interesting BBC article on the Old Age Pension points out, it was means-tested, being reduced if your income was over 12 shillings a week or you had too much furniture.

In our times of the credit crisis, people not saving for retirement, and a rapidly ageing population, the NHS and the Pension will continue to be needed for many years to come.

Steve Webb's recent item on rising energy prices highlights yet another current concern for people with lower incomes.