Categories

• Categorised the poor into two categories:

  • impotent poor (deserving) who were too old, young or ill to work
  • idle poor (undeserving) who were too lazy to work
• Elizabethan’s worried that the idle poor would cause rebellion and the spread of disease
• Charity was reserved for the impotent poor while punishment was reserved for the idle poor
• The impotent poor were recognised to be able bodied people who couldn’t find work, especially in urban areas
• The idle poor were untrustworthy beggars and vagabonds that had no interest in honest work
• An almshouse was a building that provided food and accommodation to those in need
• In Elizabethan England, attitudes to poverty became more sympathetic than in Henry VIII’s reign, although they were still unforgiving to those called the idle poor