3.3 Poor Law

• Poverty definition 


  Households who earn below 60% of the median income
• Causes of Poverty

  • war (Boer war)
  • Disease
  • new technology (replaces jobs)
  • factories
  • natural disasters leading to crop failure
  • discrimination
  • neo-colonialism
  • inflation
  • corruption
  • society hierarchy, class, taxes
• Who’s responsibility is it to look after the poor?

  • the local government
  • charities
  • the church (monasteries)
  • hospitals
  • businesses
  • landowners
  • self-help
  • Philanthropist
• What was a pauper?

  A very poor person
• Early workhouses - intended for sick, elderly + orphans - however indoor relief only

  helped 1 in 12 paupers and stigma was attached
• Over 30,000 children ended up in workhouses every year
• 1/10 only way out of workhouses was through a coffin
• 17th century - 700 workhouses in England housing 250,000+ people
• Workhouses were so overcrowded resulting in 45,000 old and in firm paupers were sent to asylums
• By 1900 due to economic expansion, Britain was the richest country but 1/3 of people lived below poverty line
• Workhouses were home to 16 million people in 100 years
• Solution to poverty of workhouses introduced in 1834 and shut in 1948
• Anatomy act of 1832

  • it was considered a crime to be poor and people were frowned upon for not making it out of poverty
  • those that went into workhouses had to repay their welfare debt for being in the houses
  • therefore able to dissect bodies and use for medical research
• 1/3 of all workhouse inmates were 65+ years old and used the workhouse as a retirement home
• Who was responsible for the poor until 1834?

  The parishes
• Strengths of the parishes’/the Elizabethan Poor Law administration of the Poor Law?

  • allowed for relief
  • since local people were appointed as overseers of the poor they may be able to distinguish between the genuine needy and those who weren’t
  • it wouldn’t have been a burden for the government since it allowed for the parishes to look after their own local poor
• Weaknesses of the parishes’/the Elizabethan Poor Law administration of the Poor Law?

  • its administrators were unpaid and non-professional
  • overseers could have easily abused their powers (used it to settle scores)
  • overseers changed on a regular basis- no consistency to what counts as ‘poor’ and what doesn’t
  • the lower class would become reliant on the upper classes
• Weaknesses of the parishes’/the Elizabethan Poor Law administration of the Poor Law?

  • if there was any local crisis (e.g. a failed harvest) could cause a burden on locally raised finances
  • no general pool of resources and the treatment of the poor was inconsistent
  • 1662 and 1697 Settlement Acts- meant that migrating populations wouldn’t be allowed relief from the parishes they moved to (though overseers and magistrates couldn’t keep up with caring out the settlement orders)
• How were the Poor categorised until 1834?

  Deserving- pauperism isn’t their fault (old, sick, children)

  Undeserving- poor due to moral failure (drunkeness or prostitution)

  Impotent- could not after themselves (disabled or elderly)

  Idle- refused to work, resulted to begging or crime

  Able-bodied- wanted relief but are able to work
• Why did the pressures for change intensify in the years 1780-1834?

  Wars with France

  • ending the wars meant greater demands for poor relief
  • Farmers required to pay wartime tax, harvests across Europe and England were good (1813 and 1814), costs of crops remained low, Farmers had to either ask for relief or sack their workers
  • 1815, Tory Gov introduced Corn Laws prevented importing European corn, led to riots because people thought it made the cost of bread artificially high
• Why did the pressures for change intensify in the years 1780-1834?

  Wars with France

  • Post war distress= more people claiming relief, made worse for returning soldiers (they needed relief)
  • Poor laws condemned as being the actual cause of poverty
• Swing Riots

  • industrialisation - new steam powered machines less work by humans needed
  • unemployment rose, people were angry and committed arson
  • 19 rioters sentenced to death
  • 400 sent to Australia
  • 644 imprisoned
  • 800 acquitted
  • seven fined
  • one whipped