At the start of the 1900s, Booth and Rowntree produced scientific surveys which revealed that Britain was facing serious poverty problems. They showed that one third of the British population were living below subsistence level and were unable to afford the basic necessities to survive. This circumstance resulted from a number of causes, often through no fault of their own, including unemployment, ill-health and old age. However, the traditional Victorian attitude to poverty was that it was self-inflicted and that if people were poor it was their own fault. …
