The Fabian Society has published a collection of writing to mark the centenary of one of the most important moments in British welfare history: the publication in 1909 of Beatrice Webb's Minority Report to the Royal Commission on the Poor Law. Her call for the Poor Law and workhouse to be scrapped and replaced with a universal welfare state was too radical for the time but paved the way for William Beveridge, her young researcher on the Minority Report, to use that vision three decades later to usher in the post-war welfare state.

The Webbs said: "We think that the time has come when the nation should definitely adopt the principle of using all its powers to prevent the occurrence of destitution, instead of the principle of merely relieving it after it has occurred."

Go to the Books page for more information

Read Sunder Katwala on Comment is Free and Labour List

Read Guardian Editorial in praise of Beatrice Webb

Read letter to the Guardian