---
title: '''Social Security'' (British Information Services poster, New York)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/britain-social-security-umbrella-1940/
description: A pictogram in five rows (1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940) shows nine figures standing in rain while a blue umbrella marked 'Social Security' grows wider
section: Collection
---

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3. 'Social Security' (British Information Services poster, New York)

[!['Social Security', 1940 UK poster: A pictogram in five rows (1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940) shows nine figures standing](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/britain-social-security-umbrella-1940.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/britain-social-security-umbrella-1940.jpg)

# 'Social Security' (British Information Services poster, New York)

A pictogram in five rows (1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940) shows nine figures standing in rain while a blue umbrella marked 'Social Security' grows wider with each dated British measure until it covers all nine in 1940. The sequence shows only the extensions of coverage and no limits or costs (card-stacking), a record of expansion presented as one steady story.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
SOCIAL SECURITY

Poor Law
1900
DESTITUTE

First Old Age Pensions Act 1908
1910
OLD AGE PENSIONS AT 70

Health Insurance Scheme Unemployment Insurance Scheme 1912
1920
HEALTH INS. FOR WORKERS 14-[illegible]
UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE

Contributory Pensions Scheme 1925
1930
OLD AGE PENSIONS AT 65
ORPHAN'S - WIDOW'S PENSIONS
WHITE COLLAR WORKERS

Old Age Pensions Act - 1940
Unemployment Insurance (Agriculturl) Act - 1940
Extension of Unemployment Insurance Scheme
1940
WOMEN'S PENSIONS AT 60
AGRICULTURAL WORKERS

[umbrella label:] SOCIAL SECURITY

BRITISH INFORMATION SERVICES, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, N. Y.
An Agency of the British Government
```

[← 'Better pot-luck with Churchill today than humble pie under Hitler tomorrow' (British Ministry of Food poster)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/better-pot-luck-with-churchill-dont-waste-food-1940/) [Anything less than your best is DESERTING - It's now or never on the production line →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-anything-less-than-your-best-is-deserting-1940/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.