Outdoor Relief

Cards (3)

  • The Speenhamland System:
    As one of the most widely used allowance systems, it was introduced in 1795 at Speenhamland in Berkshire. It was a way of giving relief by subsidising low wages, establishing a formal relationship between the price of bread and the number of dependents in a family. Although, parishes didn't always give relief in the form of cash. It was widely adopted in the south and east of Britain due to seasonal unemployment and became worse due to the loss of cottage industries and the loss of common land.
  • The Roundsman System:
    This system was designed to make sure at least some work was found for each able-bodied pauper. Able-bodied paupers would be given a ticket by the overseer to give to a potential employer for work. Once the work was completed, the pauper would get the ticket signed and returned to the overseer where the farmer would pay part of the wage and the parish would pay the rest. This wage could be based on the price of bread, the size of a family or a flat rate. However, many farmers took advantage of this, only paying workers the bare minimum.
  • The Labour Rate:
    Preventing the abuse of the Roundsman System, this involved an agreement to establish a labour rate in addition to the Poor Rate. Ratepayers who employed pauper labourers and paid them the rate set by the parish didn't have to pay extra poor rates. By 1832, one in five parishes were using some form of labour rate.