His father had been in Debtor's Prison, which is why he railed about those as well as the work houses and how they were run; however, he was all for a damned WELFARE STATE and worse.
Was he correct about some of the problems he wrote about? Yes, he was; however, his solutions were NOT what most of us would agree with and more Marxist than you seem to realize. And he was NOT a very nice person, whom even his friends admitted.
Despite the way they are slandered by Leftists, the Victorians were animated by reform. When they thought something was wrong they fixed it. Dickens didn’t slander the wealthy. There are plenty of benevolent men of wealth in his work.
Thsanks for that imfo.