   #copyright

Poor Law

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History
1500-1750; British History 1750-1900

   Former workhouse at Nantwich, dating from 1780
   Former workhouse at Nantwich, dating from 1780

   The Poor Law was the system for the provision of social security in
   operation in England and the rest of the United Kingdom from the 16th
   century until the establishment of the Welfare State in the 20th
   century. It was made up of several Acts of Parliament and subsequent
   Amendments. The extreme longevity of the Poor Law meant that some of
   the generalisations made about it (for example, the use of workhouses)
   refer to only a part of its history.

The classification of the poor

   For much of the period of the Poor Law, the dependent poor were
   classified in terms of three groups:
     * The impotent poor could not look after themselves or go to work.
       They included the ill, the infirm, the elderly, and children with
       no-one to properly care for them. It was generally held that they
       should be looked after.
     * The able-bodied poor normally referred to those who were unable to
       find work - either due to cyclical or long term unemployment in the
       area, or a lack of skills. Attempts to assist these people, and
       move them out of this category, varied over the centuries, but
       usually consisted of relief either in the form of work or money.
     * The 'vagrants' or 'beggars', sometimes termed 'sturdy rogues', were
       deemed those who could work but had refused to. Such people were
       seen in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as potential
       criminals, apt to do mischief when hired for the purpose. They were
       normally seen as people needing punishment, and as such were often
       whipped in the market place as an example to others, or sometimes
       sent to so-called ' houses of correction'. This group was also
       termed the idle poor.

Poor relief before 1601 (Tudor Poor Law)

   Tudor Poor Laws aimed to deal with vagrancy, laws aimed at reducing
   begging while appearing humanitarian more prompted by a desire for
   social stability. Tudor Poor Laws were harsh towards the able bodied
   poor - whippings and beatings were acceptable punishments.
     * 1552 - Parishes began to register those considered 'poor'.
     * 1563 - Justices of the Peace began to collect money for poor
       relief. The poor were grouped for the first time into the impotent
       poor, idle poor and able-bodied poor (unemployed).
     * 1572 - First local poor tax to fund poor relief.
     * 1576 - Idea of a workhouse first suggested. It is first suggested
       that JPs could provide materials for which the able-bodied could
       work in return for relief.
     * 1579 - Justices of the Peace authorised to collect funds for poor
       relief. The post of Overseer of the Poor was created.
     * 1595 'Buttock Mail', a Scottish Poor Rate is levied.

The Act of 1601

   The Poor Law Act 1601 also known as the Elizabethan Poor Law and Old
   Poor Law (after the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834)
   formalised earlier practices of poor relief. It created a collectivist
   national system, paid for by levying local rates (or property taxes).
   It made provision:
     * To board out (making a payment to families willing to accept them)
       those young children who were orphaned or whose parents could not
       maintain them,
     * to provide materials to "set the poor on work"
     * To offer relief to people who were unable to work -- mainly those
       who were "lame, impotent, old, blind", and
     * "The putting out of children to be apprentices".

   Relief for those too ill or old to work, the so called impotent poor,
   was in the form of a payment or items of food ('the parish loaf') or
   clothing. Some aged people might be accommodated in parish alms houses,
   though these were usually private charitable institutions. Meanwhile
   able-bodied beggars who had refused work were often placed in houses of
   correction. However, provision for the many able-bodied poor in the
   workhouse, which provided accommodation at the same time as work, was
   relatively unusual, and most workhouses developed later. Assistance
   given to the deserving poor that did not involve an institution like
   the workhouse, was known as ' outdoor relief'.

   There was much variation in the application of the law and there was a
   tendency for the destitute to migrate towards the more generous
   parishes, usually situated in the towns. This led to the Settlement Act
   1662 also known as the Poor Relief Act 1662 - this allowed relief only
   to established residents of a parish - mainly through birth, marriage
   and apprenticeship. A pauper applicant had to prove a 'settlement'.If
   they could not, they were removed to the next parish that was nearest
   to the place of their birth, or where they might prove some connection.
   Some paupers were moved hundreds of miles. Although each parish that
   they passed through was not responsible for them, they were supposed to
   supply food and drink and shelter for at least one night. The Act was
   criticised in later years for its effect in distorting the labour
   market, through the power given to parishes to let them remove
   'undeserving' poor.

   Some of the legislation was punitive. In 1697 an act was passed
   requiring the poor to wear a "badge" of red or blue cloth on the right
   shoulder with an embroidered letter "P" and the initial of their
   parish. However, this was often disregarded. Alcock complained, in
   1752, that "these marks of distinction have had but little effect, and
   for that Reasons, I suppose, have been almost everywhere neglected."

Amendments to the 1601 Act

     * 1662 - Poor Relief Act 1662 (Settlement Acts)
     * 1723 - Workhouse Test Act
     * 1782 - Gilbert's Act
     * 1795 - Speenhamland

The eighteenth century

   The eighteenth-century workhouse movement began at the end of the
   seventeenth century with the establishment of the Bristol Corporation
   of the Poor, founded by Act of Parliament in 1696. The corporation
   established a workhouse which combined housing and care of the poor
   with a house of correction for petty offenders. Following the example
   of Bristol some twelve further towns and cities established similar
   corporations in the next two decades. Because these corporations
   required a private Act, they were not suitable for smaller towns and
   individual parishes.

   Starting with the parish of Olney, Buckinghamshire in 1714 several
   dozen small towns and individual parishes established their own
   institutions without any specific legal authorization. These were
   concentrated in the South Midlands and in the county of Essex. From the
   late 1710s the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge began
   to promote the idea of parochial workhouses. The Society published
   several pamphlets on the subject, and supported Sir Edward Knatchbull
   in his successful efforts to steer the Workhouse Test Act through
   parliament in 1723. The act gave legislative authority for the
   establishment of parochial workhouses, by both single parishes and as
   joint ventures between two or more parishes. More importantly, the Act
   helped to publicise the idea of establishing workhouses to a national
   audience. By 1776 some 1912 parish and corporation workhouses had been
   established in England and Wales, housing almost 100,000 paupers.
   Although many parishes and pamphlet writers expected to earn money from
   the labour of the poor in workhouses, the vast majority of people
   obliged to take up residence in workhouses were ill, elderly, or
   children whose labour proved largely unprofitable. The demands, needs
   and expectations of the poor also ensured that workhouses came to take
   on the character of general social policy institutions, combining the
   functions of creche, and night shelter, geriatric ward and orphanage.

   In 1782, Thomas Gilbert finally succeeded in passing an act that
   established poor houses solely for the aged and infirm and introduced a
   system of outdoor relief for the able-bodied. This was the basis for
   the development of the Speenhamland system, which made financial
   provision for low-paid workers.

The reform of the Poor Law

   Dissatisfaction with the system grew at the beginning of the 19th
   century. The 1601 system was felt to be too costly and was widely
   perceived as encouraging the underlying problems - pushing more people
   into poverty even while it helped those who were already in poverty.
   Jeremy Bentham argued for a disciplinary, punitive approach to social
   problems, whilst the writings of Thomas Malthus focused attention on
   the problem of overpopulation, and the growth of illegitimacy. David
   Ricardo argued that there was an "iron law of wages". The effect of
   poor relief, in the view of the reformers, was to undermine the
   position of the "independent labourer".

   In the period following the Napoleonic Wars, several reformers altered
   the function of the "poorhouse" into the model for a deterrent
   workhouse. The first of the deterrent workhouses in this period was at
   Bingham, Notts. The second was Becher's workhouse in Southwell, now
   maintained by the National Trust. George Nicholls, the overseer at
   Southwell,was to become a Poor Law Commissioner in the reformed system.

   The 1817 Report of the Select Committee on the Poor Laws condemned the
   Poor Law as causing poverty itself.

The Royal Commission on the Poor Law

   The 1832 Royal Commission into the Operation of the Poor Laws was set
   up following the widespread destruction and machine breaking of the
   Swing Riots. The report was prepared by a commission of eight,
   including Nassau William Senior, and served by Edwin Chadwick as
   Secretary. The Royal Commission's primary concerns were with
   illegitimacy (or "bastardy"), reflecting the influence of Malthusians,
   and the fear that the practices of the Old Poor Law were undermining
   the position of the independent labourer. Two practices were of
   particular concern: the "roundsman" system, where overseers hired out
   paupers as cheap labour, and the Speenhamland system, which subsidised
   low wages with out relief.

Findings of the Commission

   The 13 volume report pointed to the conclusion that the poor law itself
   was the cause of poverty. The report differentiated between poverty,
   which was seen as necessary, as it was fear of poverty which made
   people work, and indigence - the inability to earn enough to live on.
     * " less eligibility": that the position of the pauper should be less
       eligible (that is, less to be chosen) than that of the independent
       labourer.
     * the " workhouse test", that relief should only be available in the
       workhouse. The reformed workhouses were to be uninviting, so that
       anyone capable of coping outside them would choose not to be in
       one.

   When the act was introduced however it had been partly watered down.
   The workhouse test and the idea of "less eligibility" were never
   mentioned themselves and the recommendation of the Royal Commission -
   that ' outdoor relief' (relief given outside of a workhouse) should be
   abolished - was never implemented.

   The report recommended separate workhouses for the aged, infirm,
   children, able-bodied females and able-bodied males. The report also
   stated that parishes should be grouped into unions in order to spread
   the cost of workhouses and a central authority should be established in
   order to enforce these measures .

   The Poor Law Commission took two years to write its report, the
   recommendations passed easily through Parliament support by both main
   parties the Whigs and the Tories. The bill gained Royal Assent in 1834.
   Of those who opposed the Bill - of whom there were few - were more
   concerned about the centralisation which the bill would bring rather
   than the underpinning philosophy of utilitarianism.

The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act

   The Bill established a Poor Law Commission to oversee the national
   operation of the system. This included the forming together of small
   parishes into Poor Law Unions and the building of workhouses in each
   union for the giving of poor relief.

   The Amendment Act did not ban all forms of outdoor relief. Not until
   the 1840s would the only method of relief be for the poor to enter a
   Workhouse. The Workhouses were to be made little more than prisons and
   families were normally separated upon entering a Workhouse.

   When the new Amendment was applied to the industrial North of England
   (an area the law had never considered during reviews), the system
   failed catastrophically as many found themselves temporarily
   unemployed, due to recessions or a fall in stock demands, so called
   'cyclical unemployment' and were reluctant to enter a Workhouse,
   despite it being the only method of gaining aid.

   The abuses and shortcomings of the system are documented in the novels
   of Charles Dickens and Frances Trollope. Despite the aspirations of the
   reformers, the Poor Law was unable to make the Workhouse as bad as life
   outside. The primary problem was that in order to make the diet of the
   Workhouse inmates "less eligible" than what they could expect outside,
   it would be necessary to starve the inmates beyond an acceptable level.
   It was for this reason that other ways were found to deter entrance to
   the Workhouses. These measures ranged from the introduction of prison
   style uniforms to the segregation of 'inmates' into yards - there were
   normally male, female, boy and girls yards.

   Fierce hostility and organised opposition from workers, politicians and
   religious leaders eventually lead to the Amendment Act being amended,
   removing the very harsh measures of the Workhouses to a certain degree.
   The Andover workhouse scandal, where conditions in the Andover Union
   Workhouse were found to be inhumane and dangerous, prompted a
   government review and the abolishment of the Poor Law Commission which
   was replaced with a Poor Law Board. From now on a Committee of
   Parliament was to administer the Poor Law, with a cabinet minister as
   head.

Amendments to the Amendment Act

     * Outdoor Labour Test Order
     * Outdoor Relief Prohibitory Order

The Poor Laws in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales

   In 1838 the Poor Laws were extended into Ireland, although a few
   poorhouses had been built before that time. The workhouses were
   supervised by a Poor Law Commissioner in Dublin. The Irish Poor Laws
   were even harsher on the poor than the English Poor Laws; furthermore,
   the Irish unions were underfunded, and there were too few workhouses in
   Ireland. As a result, the Irish Potato Famine became a humanitarian
   catastrophe.

   Scotland launched its own Poor Law system in 1579. As the Act of Union
   which united England and Scotland did not alter Scotland's legal
   system, this Poor Law system did not disappear after 1707. Reforms
   similar in intent to the English reforms of 1834 were made in 1845.

   The English Poor Laws applied in Wales.

Poor Law Policy 1847-1900

Commission replaced with a Board

   After 1847 the Poor Law Commission was replaced with a Poor Law Board.
   This was because of the Andover workhouse scandal and the criticism of
   Henry Parker who was responsible for the Andover union as well as the
   tensions in Somerset House caused by Chadwicks failure to become a Poor
   Law Commissioner.

Union Chargeability Act

   The Poor Law had been altered in 1834 because of increasing costs. The
   Union Chargeability Act was passed in 1865 in order to make the
   financial burden of pauperism be placed upon the whole unions rather
   than individual parishes. Most Boards of Guardians were middle class
   and committed to keeping Poor Rates as low as possible

Increasing powers for local government

   After the 1867 Reform Act there was increasing welfare legislation. As
   this legislation required local authorities' support the Poor Law Board
   was replaced with a Local Government Board in 1871. County Councils
   were formed in 1888, District Councils in 1894. This meant that public
   housing, unlike health and income maintenance, developed outside the
   scope of the Poor Law. The infirmaries and the workhouses remained the
   responsibility of the Guardians until 1930. This change was in part due
   to changing attitudes on the nature and causes of poverty - there was
   for the first time an attitude that society had a responsibility to
   protect its more vulnerable members.

The end of the Poor Law

   The reforms of the Liberal Government 1906-14 (see Liberal reforms)
   made several provisions to provide social services without the stigma
   of the Poor Law, including Old age pensions and National Insurance, and
   from that period fewer people were covered by the system. Means tests
   were developed during the inter-war period, not as part of the Poor
   Law, but as part of the attempt to offer relief that was not affected
   by the stigma of pauperism.

   One aspect of the Poor Law that continued to cause resentment was that
   the burden of poor relief was not shared equally by rich and poor areas
   but, rather, fell most heavily on those areas in which poverty was at
   its worst. This was a central issue in the Poplar Rates Rebellion led
   by George Lansbury and others in 1921.

   Workhouses were officially abolished by the Local Government Act 1929,
   which from 1 April 1930 abolished the Unions and transferred their
   responsibilities to the county councils and county boroughs. Some
   however persisted into the 1940s. The remaining responsibility for the
   Poor Law was given to local authorities before final abolition in 1948.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_Law"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
