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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 …

…people from becoming poor. Help was only given once poverty had struck. Overall, however, despite all the shortcomings, the Liberals made a great achievement in recognising and attempting to solve the problem of poverty and although they were far from eradicating it, they made an important start, as Winston Churchill has commented: "We have not pretended to carry the toiler on to dry land; what we have done is to strap a lifebelt around him."