Australia Prior to 1900 in Australia, charitable assistance from benevolent societies, sometimes with financial contributions from the authorities, was the primary means of relief for people not able to support themselves. In 1900, New South Wales and Victoria enacted legislation introducing non-contributory pensions for those aged 65 and over. Queensland legislated a similar system in 1907 before the
Deakin government introduced a national aged pension under the
Invalid and Old-Aged Pensions Act 1908. A national invalid disability pension was started in 1910, and a national maternity allowance was introduced by the
Fisher government in 1912. During the Second World War, the federal government created a welfare state by enacting national schemes for: child endowment in 1941; a widows' pension in 1942; a wife's allowance in 1943; additional allowances for the children of pensioners in 1943; and unemployment, sickness, and special benefits in 1945.
Medicare is Australia's publicly funded universal health care insurance scheme. Initially created in 1975 by the
Whitlam Labor government under the name "Medibank". The Fraser Liberal government made significant changes to it from 1976 leading to its abolition in late 1981. The Hawke government reinstated universal health care in 1984 under the name "Medicare".
Brunei Brunei operates a comprehensive welfare state, primarily funded by its substantial oil and gas revenues, which account for approximately 65% of its GDP and 90% of government income. This wealth enables the government to provide citizens with extensive benefits, including free education, free or heavily subsidized healthcare, public housing, and various subsidies on essential goods like fuel and food. Notably, Bruneians pay no personal
income tax, and the state covers many living expenses. However, Brunei's heavy reliance on
hydrocarbon resources poses sustainability challenges, especially amid global shifts toward
renewable energy. Recognizing this, the government has initiated economic diversification efforts under the "Wawasan Brunei 2035" vision, aiming to reduce dependence on oil and gas by developing sectors like technology, tourism, and agriculture. Despite these initiatives, progress has been gradual, and the long-term viability of Brunei's welfare model remains contingent on successful economic transformation.
Canada Canada's
welfare programs are funded and administered at all levels of government (with 13 different
China China traditionally relied on the extended family to provide welfare services. The
one-child policy introduced in 1978 has made that unrealistic, and new models have emerged since the 1980s as China has rapidly become richer and more urban. Much discussion is underway regarding China's proposed path toward a welfare state. Chinese policies have been incremental and fragmented in terms of social insurance, privatization, and targeting. In the cities, where the rapid economic development has centered, lines of cleavage have developed between state-sector and non-state-sector employees, and between labor-market insiders and outsiders.
France After 1830, French
liberalism and economic modernization were key goals. While liberalism was individualistic and laissez-faire in the United Kingdom and the United States, in France liberalism was based instead on a solidaristic conception of society, following the theme of the French Revolution,
Liberté, égalité, fraternité ("liberty, equality, fraternity"). In the Third Republic, especially between 1895 and 1914 "Solidarité" ["solidarism"] was the guiding concept of a liberal social policy, whose chief champions were the prime ministers
Leon Bourgeois (1895–96) and
Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau (1899–1902). The French welfare state expanded when it tried to follow some of Bismarck's policies. Poor relief was the starting point. More attention was paid to industrial labour in the 1930s during a short period of socialist political ascendency, with the
Matignon Accords and the reforms of the
Popular Front. Paxton points out these reforms were paralleled and even exceeded by measures taken by the
Vichy regime in the 1940s.
Germany Some policies enacted to enhance social welfare in Germany were Health Insurance 1883, Accident Insurance 1884, Old Age Pensions 1889 and National Unemployment Insurance 1927.
Otto von Bismarck, the powerful
Chancellor of Germany (in office 1871–90), developed the first modern welfare state by building on a tradition of welfare programs in
Prussia and
Saxony that had begun as early as in the 1840s. The measures that Bismarck introduced – old-age
pensions,
accident insurance, and employee health insurance – formed the basis of the modern European welfare state. His paternalistic programs aimed to forestall social unrest and to undercut the appeal of the new
Social Democratic Party, and to secure the support of the
working classes for the
German Empire, as well as to reduce emigration to the United States, where wages were higher but welfare did not exist. Bismarck further won the support of both industry and skilled workers through his high-
tariff policies, which protected profits and wages from American competition, although they alienated the
liberal intellectuals who wanted
free trade. During the 12 years of rule by
Adolf Hitler's
Nazi Party, the welfare state established by previous German governments was maintained, but it was restructured so as to help only
Aryan individuals considered worthy of assistance, excluding "alcoholics, tramps, homosexuals, prostitutes, the 'work-shy' or the 'asocial', habitual criminals, the hereditarily ill (a widely defined category) and members of races other than the Aryan."
India The
Directive Principles of State Policy, enshrined in Part IV of the
Indian Constitution reflects that India is a welfare state. Food security to all Indians is guaranteed under the
National Food Security Act, 2013 where the government provides food grains to people at a very subsidised rate. Since 2001, India has developed a strong welfare state with continuous increase in government expenditure on the social sector over the years. The general government's expenditure on social security and welfare which includes health insurances and public hospitals, education, grants for housing, financial transfers to the poor, free bus or metro tickets, unemployment benefits and a variety of social pensions was approximately in 2022, representing 8.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
Singapore In
Singapore, the government provides financial and social support through a variety of social assistance schemes for lower and middle-income Singaporeans. The
Ministry of Social and Family Development runs ComCare, a program which provides income support for low-income citizen households through various schemes for short-to-medium term assistance, long-term assistance, child support, and urgent financial needs. The
Community Development Councils also run various local assistance schemes within their districts. The
Ministry of Manpower runs a Silver Support Scheme which provides additional financial support for low-income elderly with no family support. Meanwhile, the
Ministry of Health also runs MediFund to assist anyone on their behalf to pay off the rest of their medical bills after initial government subsidies,
other health financing schemes as well as funds from the
Central Provident Fund has been used. In 2012, the Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) was introduced. It is a medical card that provides extended subsidies exclusively for Singaporean citizens usually from lower-to-middle income households, as well as the older generations, where they could receive treatment for common illnesses, chronic health problems and specific dental issues at private clinics for free. The intentions behind the scheme were to encourage Singaporeans to use such a card and tap into the private healthcare sector for common or minor chronic illnesses, as well as dental care, to reduce the strain at public community hospitals. Originally, only a blue and orange card existed, depending on their household income. In addition, the
National Council of Social Service coordinates a range of 450 non-government
voluntary welfare organisations to provide social services, while raising funds through
The Community Chest of Singapore. Taking the
World Bank's
International Poverty Line (IPL)'s
poverty threshold into account, the population of Singaporeans living below the poverty line is virtually non-existent. Singapore also has one of the highest housing ownership rates in the world – over 90 percent – owing to the government's policy of constructing extensive and quality public housing throughout the country and providing extensive subsidies for its citizens to obtain them.
Sri Lanka In 1995, the government started the Samurdhi (Prosperity) program aimed at reducing poverty, having replaced the
Jana Saviya poverty alleviation programme that was in place at the time.
United Kingdom About the British welfare state, historian Derek Fraser wrote: The modern welfare state in the United Kingdom began operations with the
Liberal welfare reforms of 1906–1914 under
Liberal Prime Minister
H. H. Asquith. These included the passing of the
Old Age Pensions Act 1908, the introduction of
free school meals in 1909, the
Labour Exchanges Act 1909, the
Development and Road Improvement Funds Act 1909, which heralded greater
government intervention in
economic development, and the
National Insurance Act 1911 setting up a
national insurance contribution for unemployment and health benefits from work. The
People's Budget was introduced by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, in 1909 to fund the welfare reforms. After much opposition, it was passed by the
House of Lords on 29 April 1910. The
minimum wage was introduced in the United Kingdom in 1909 for certain low-wage industries and expanded to numerous industries, including farm labour, by 1920. However, by the 1920s, a new perspective was offered by reformers to emphasize the usefulness of
family allowance targeted at low-income families as the alternative to relieving poverty without distorting the labour market. The trade unions and the Labour Party adopted this view. In 1945, family allowances were introduced; minimum wages faded from view. Talk resumed in the 1970s, but in the 1980s the Thatcher administration made it clear it would not accept a national minimum wage. Finally, with the return of Labour, the
National Minimum Wage Act 1998 set a minimum of £3.60 per hour, with lower rates for younger workers. It largely affected workers in high-turnover service industries such as fast-food restaurants, and members of ethnic minorities. December 1942 saw the publication of the
Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Social Insurance and Allied Services, commonly known as the
Beveridge Report after its chairman, Sir
William Beveridge. The Beveridge Report proposed a series of measures to aid those who were in need of help, or in poverty and recommended that the government find ways of tackling what the report called "the five giants": Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor, and Idleness. It urged the government to take steps to provide citizens with adequate income, adequate health care, adequate education, adequate housing, and adequate employment, proposing that "all people of working age should pay a weekly
National Insurance contribution. In return, benefits would be paid to people who were sick, unemployed, retired, or widowed." The Beveridge Report assumed that the
National Health Service would provide free health care to all citizens and that a Universal Child Benefit would give benefits to parents, encouraging people to have children by enabling them to feed and support a family. The
Liberal Party, the
Conservative Party, and then the
Labour Party all adopted the Beveridge Report's recommendations. Following the Labour election victory in the
1945 general election many of Beveridge's reforms were implemented through a series of Acts of Parliament. On 5 July 1948, the
National Insurance Act,
National Assistance Act and
National Health Service Act came into force, forming the key planks of the modern UK welfare state. In 1949, the
Legal Aid and Advice Act was passed, providing the "fourth pillar" of the modern welfare state, access to advice for legal redress for all. Before 1939, most health care had to be paid for through non-government organisations – through a vast network of friendly societies, trade unions, and other insurance companies, which counted the vast majority of the UK working population as members. These organizations provided insurance for sickness, unemployment, and disability, providing an income to people when they were unable to work. As part of the reforms, the
Church of England also closed down its voluntary relief networks and passed the ownership of thousands of church schools, hospitals and other bodies to the state. Welfare systems continued to develop over the following decades. By the end of the 20th century parts of the welfare system had been restructured, with some provision channelled through
non-governmental organizations which became important providers of social services.
United States The United States developed a limited welfare state in the 1930s. The earliest and most comprehensive philosophical justification for the welfare state was produced by an American, the sociologist
Lester Frank Ward (1841–1913), whom the historian
Henry Steele Commager called "the father of the modern welfare state". Ward saw social phenomena as amenable to human control. "It is only through the artificial control of natural phenomena that science is made to minister to human needs" he wrote, "and if social laws are really analogous to physical laws, there is no reason why social science should not receive practical application such as have been given to physical science." Ward wrote: Ward's theories centred around his belief that a universal and
comprehensive system of education was necessary if a democratic government was to function successfully. His writings profoundly influenced younger generations of
progressive thinkers such as
Theodore Roosevelt,
Thomas Dewey, and
Frances Perkins (1880–1965), among others. The United States was the only industrialized country that went into the
Great Depression of the 1930s with no social insurance policies in place. In 1935
Franklin D. Roosevelt's
New Deal instituted significant social insurance policies. In 1938 Congress passed the
Fair Labor Standards Act, limiting the work week to 40 hours and banning child labor for children under 16, over stiff congressional opposition from the low-wage South. Some scholars, such as Gerard Friedman, argue that
labor-union weakness in the
Southern United States undermined unionization and social reform throughout the United States as a whole, and is largely responsible for the anemic U.S. welfare state. Sociologists
Loïc Wacquant and John L. Campbell contend that since the rise of
neoliberal ideology in the late 1970s and early 1980s, an expanding carceral state, or government system of
mass incarceration, has largely supplanted the increasingly retrenched social welfare state, which has been justified by its proponents with the argument that the citizenry must take on personal responsibility. Scholars assert that this transformation of the welfare state to a post-welfare punitive state, along with neoliberal structural adjustment policies and the globalization of the U.S. economy, have created more extreme forms of "destitute poverty" in the U.S. which must be contained and controlled by expanding the criminal justice system into every aspect of the lives of the poor. Other scholars such as Esping-Andersen argue that the welfare state in the United States has been characterized by private provision because such a state would better reflect the racial and sexual biases within the private sector. The disproportionate number of racial and sexual minorities in private sector jobs with weaker benefits, he argues, is evidence that the American welfare state is not necessarily intended to improve the economic situation of such groups. ==By region==