Table of Contents

Part I. The Campaign for Old Age Pensions: 1. Introduction; 2. The nineteenth-century background; 3. Blackley, Chamberlain and Booth; 4. The opposition of the Charity Organisation Society; 5. The attitude of the Friendly Societies; 6. The Labour Movement and the State; Part II. Contributory Pensions: 7. The First World War and the 1919 Ryland Adkins committee; 8. From 'all-in insurance' to contributory pensions; Labour's lost opportunity; 9. Neville Chamberlain, the 'New Conservatism' and the 1925 Act; Part III. The Debate on Retirement Pensions: 10. Labour and retirement pensions in the late 1920s; 11. PEP and retirement pensions in the 1930s: an ageing population; 12. Poverty surveys; Part IV. The Beveridge 'Revolution': 13. The pensions crisis of the late 1930s; 14. All-party pressure in the late 1930s: the Treasury enquiry and the 1940 Act; 15. The origins and working of the Beveridge Committee; 16. After the Beveridge report, 1942–8; 17. Conclusion.