英国残疾人社会福利经费筹集的历史考察

张殿清  河北大学副教授 博士

英国残疾人社会福利制度发轫于1601年颁布的《济贫法》，成熟于二战后，通过300多年的发展，逐步形成了一套完善的残疾人社会福利制度。与此同时，残疾人社会福利经费筹集主体也经历了从教会、地方教区和中央政府的转变。

英国残疾人社会福利最早的实施者为教会。中世纪的英国教会不仅向全体教民征收什一税、拥有收入丰厚的地产、还接受贵族捐赠。这些收入成为支撑英国残疾人福利工作的资金支柱。

16世纪宗教改革后，教会丧失了征收什一税的权利和地产，无力承担残疾人的福利重任。为了避免出现严重社会问题，近代早期的王室政府尝试介入社会救济，将残疾人纳入新型民族国家政府管理的视野。由于该时期尚未建立近代国家税收和政府机构体系，中央政府没有能力承担全国范围的救济任务，只好以地方教区为单位，按一定的税率征收济贫税，用于救济残疾人。

工业革命完成后，社会问题进一步突出，英国政府依据情况变化，适时调整了残疾人救济方式。1832年《济贫法（修正案）》公布实施。从此，中央政府开始对社会救济进行集中管理，并成立行使监督地方救济实施情况的专门机构——济贫法委员会，而且在国会也设置相应机构。该时期，征收赋税是国家筹集残疾人福利经费的重要途径。

二战后，英国依据《贝弗里奇报告》制定了以社会保险、社会救济为主的一整套现代社会保障制度，以保障残疾人在人格权利、政治权利和生存发展权利上享有与其他社会成员平等的权利，使得英国成为人类历史上的第一个“福利国家”。英国社会保障资金主要来自财政拨款。此外，就业残疾人及其雇主须缴纳的各种保险费用、社会捐赠以及基金市场的投资收益也是残疾人社会福利费用的来源。

通过考察英国残疾人社会福利经费筹集的历史可知，随着现代化民族国家的发展，政府在残疾人社会福利领域发挥了越来越重要的作用，并最终取得了主导地位。

关键词： 残疾人 社会福利 英国

The modern welfare system of disabled people in UK evolved from the Poor Law issued in 1601
and got fully established after World War II after more than 300 year’s development. Accordingly, the institutions in charge of the wefare of the disabled people also changed from the church to parishes and at last to the central government.
The church was the first institution that provided welfare to disabled people. In the Middle Ages, it not only taxed one tenth taxation on all the followers, owned productive estates but also received donations from the nobles. The substantial income of the church helped finance the wefare of the disabled.
After the reformation, the chuch was deprived of the estates and thus had no ability to sponsor the wefare of the disabled people. Instead the early modern royal government had to shoulder the social relief responsiblilty to ensure social security. However, due to the unestablishment of the natioan taxation system and the government system, the central government was incapable of handling the social relief for the whole country and had to depend on the parish to collect Poor Relief Tax so as to relieve those poor and disabled.

With the development of industrial revolution, social problems became more serous. To cope with the changed situation, New Poor Law was issued in 1832. From then on, the central government took over the welfare work and set up a special institution to superve the local government. At the same time, a special organization for disabled people was added to the congress. During this period, taxation was the main channel to collect relief money.
After the WWII, a new comprehensive social security system was introduced based on the Beveridges’Report. It covered social insurance and social secrurity, ensuring the disabled to share equal l personal, political and s developmental rights with others. UK became the first welfare country of the world. The social secrutiy funds mainly come from the natioanl finance. Besides the insurance offered by the disabled people employed and by their employors, social donation and investment fund profits are the other three important sources.
The survey of the developemnt of welfare system in UK shows the increasing importance of central government in social wefare of the disabled people.
Key words。 the disabled people the social welfare system the United Kingdom

--(本文摘自《残疾人社会保障与服务国际论坛暨第三届中国残疾人事业发展论坛论文集》)