The following is a survey of the main medieval power structures (monarchy, upper landholding classes, urban elite and the Church) and their relationship with the welfare of the medieval populace, using the Midlands town of Leicester, and its county of Leicestershire, as a case study. The title comes from The Beveridge Report (1942), the findings of a commission set up to examine the challenges connected with the development of a welfare state in England after the end of the Second World War – namely, ‘Want is one only of five giants on the road of reconstruction; the others are Disease, Ignorance, Squalor, and Idleness.’ Despite its date, this general schema is a timeless condensation of a set of ideas expressed in medieval culture through the seven corporal mercies (to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the stranger, visit the sick and prisoners, and bury the dead), and, in a less straightforward manner, the seven spiritual mercies (to instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, admonish sinners, bear wrongs patiently, forgive offences willingly, comfort the afflicted, and pray for the living and the dead). Such a working structure provides a novel vantage point from which to examine how medieval provision looked ‘in the round’ at the local level, especially to potential recipients.