Poor relief
In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of helping the poor. Alongside ever-changing attitudes towards poverty, many methods have been attempted to answer these questions. Since the early 16th century legislation on poverty enacted by the Parliament of England, poor relief has developed from being little more than a systematic means of punishment into a complex system of government-funded support and protection, especially following the creation in the 1940s of the welfare state.
Tudor era
In the late 15th century, Parliament took action on the growing[
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The problem of poverty in England was exacerbated during the early 16th century by a dramatic increase in the population. This rose "from little more than 2 million in 1485, ... [to] about 2.8 million by the end of
Slavery law 1547
This fear of social unrest carried into the reign of
Parliament and the parish
Following the revision of the Vagabonds Act 1547, Parliament passed the Poor Act 1551. This focused on using the parishes as a source of funds to combat the increasing poverty epidemic. This statute appointed two "overseers" from each parish to collect money to be distributed to the poor who were considered to belong to the parish. These overseers were to 'gently ask' for donations for poor relief; refusal would ultimately result in a meeting with the local bishop, who would 'induce and persuade' the recalcitrant parishioners.[1] However, at times even such a meeting with the bishop would often fail to achieve its object.
Sensing that voluntary donation was ineffective, Parliament passed new legislation, the Poor Act 1562, in 1563, and once this act took effect parishioners could be brought by the bishop before the justices, and continued refusal could lead to imprisonment until contribution was made.[1] However, even the Poor Act 1562 still suffered from shortcomings, because individuals could decide for themselves how much money to give in order to gain their freedom.
A more structured system of donations was established by the Vagabonds Act 1572. After determining the amount of funds needed to provide for the poor of each parish, justices of the peace were granted the authority to determine the amount of the donation from each parish's more wealthy property-owners. This act finally turned these donations into what was effectively a local tax.[6]
In addition to creating these new imposed taxes, the Vagabonds Act 1572 created a new set of punishments to inflict upon the population of vagabonds. These included being "bored through the ear" for a first offense and hanging for "persistent beggars".[1] Unlike the previous brutal punishments established by the Vagabonds Act 1547, these extreme measures were enforced with great frequency.
However, despite its introduction of such violent actions to deter vagabonding, the Vagabonds Act 1572 was the first time that Parliament had passed legislation which began to distinguish between different categories of vagabonds. "
A new approach
A system to support individuals who were willing to work, but who were having difficulty in finding employment, was established by the
Two years after the Poor Act 1575 was passed into law, yet more dramatic changes were made to the methods to fight vagabondage and to provide relief to the poor. The Act of 1578[
End of the Elizabethan Era to 1750
Starting as early as 1590, public authorities began to take a more selective approach to supporting the poor. Those who were considered to be legitimately needy, sometimes called the "deserving poor" or "worthy poor", were allowed assistance, while those who were idle were not. People incapable of providing for themselves, such as young
The Poor Relief Act 1597 provided the first complete code of poor relief, established overseers of the poor and was later amended by the Poor Relief Act 1601, which was one of the longest-lasting achievements of her reign, left unaltered until 1834. This law made each parish responsible for supporting the legitimately needy in their community.[6] It taxed wealthier citizens of the country to provide basic shelter, food and clothing, though they were not obligated to provide for those outside of their community.
The main points of this system were the following:
- The impotent poor (people who could not work) were to be cared for in an almshouse or a poorhouse. In this way, the law offered relief to people who were unable to work, mainly those who were elderly, blind, or crippled or otherwise physically infirm.[citation needed]
- The able-bodied poor were to be set to work in a House of Industry. All materials necessary for this work were to be provided for them.[9]
- The idle poor and vagrants were to be sent to a House of Correction or prison.[citation needed]
- Pauper children would become apprentices.[citation needed]
During the 16th and 17th centuries, the population of England nearly doubled.[7] Capitalism in the agricultural and manufacturing arenas started to emerge, and trade abroad significantly increased. Despite this flourishing of expansion, sufficient employment rates had yet to be attained by the late 1600s. The population increased at alarming rates, outpacing the increase in productivity, which resulted inevitably in inflation.[6] Concurrently, wages decreased, declining to a point roughly half that of average wages of a century before.
"The boom-and-bust nature of European trade in woolen cloth, England's major manufacture and export" caused a larger fraction of the population of England to fall under poverty. With this increase in poverty, all charities operated by the
Workhouse Test Act
A law passed by the Parliament of Great Britain and sponsored by Sir Edward Knatchbull in 1723 introduced a "workhouse test", which meant that a person who wanted to receive poor relief had to enter a workhouse and undertake a set amount of work. The test was intended to prevent irresponsible claims on a parish's poor rate.
The Industrial Revolution
Child labour
By the mid to late 18th century most of the
Gilbert's Act
The 1782 poor relief law proposed by
Speenhamland system
The Speenhamland system was a form of outdoor relief intended to mitigate rural poverty at the end of the 18th century and during the early 19th century. The system was named after a 1795 meeting at the Pelican Inn in Speenhamland, Berkshire, where a number of local magistrates devised the system as a means to alleviate the distress caused by high grain prices. The increase in the price of grain most probably occurred as a result of a poor harvest in the years 1795–96, though at the time this was subject to great debate. Many blamed middlemen and hoarders as the ultimate architects of the shortage.
The authorities at Speenhamland approved a means-tested sliding scale of wage supplements in order to mitigate the worst effects of rural poverty. Families were paid extra to top up wages to a set level according to a table. This level varied according to the number of children and the price of bread.
New Poor Law of 1834
Indoor relief versus outdoor relief
Following the onset of the
The Great Famine (Ireland)
This article needs attention from an expert in history. The specific problem is: citation needed.(October 2019) |
Following the reformation of the Poor Laws in 1834, Ireland experienced a severe potato blight that lasted from 1845 to 1849 and killed an estimated 1.5 million people. The effects of the famine lasted until 1851. During this period the people of Ireland lost much land and many jobs, and appealed to the Westminster Parliament for aid.[citation needed] This aid generally came in the form of establishing more workhouses as indoor relief.[11] Some people[who?] argue that as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was in its prime as an empire, it could have given more aid in the form of money, food or rent subsidies.[citation needed]
In other parts of the United Kingdom, amendments to and adoptions of poor laws came in and around the same time. In Scotland, for example, the Poor Law (Scotland) Act 1845 revised the Poor Laws that were implemented under the 1601 Acts.
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rathbone, Mark (2005). "Vagabond!". History Review. History Today: 8–13.
- ^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
- ISBN 0-582-48965-2.
- S2CID 7272220.
- ISBN 0-19-288044-6. p. 48
- ^ a b c d e Slack, Paul. 1984. "Poverty in Elizabethan England". History Today 34, no. 10: 5. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed 1 August 2010).
- ^ S2CID 144864528.
- ^ a b c Anne Winter. 2008. "Caught between Law and Practice: Migrants and Settlement Legislation in the Southern Low Countries in a Comparative Perspective, c. 1700–1900". Rural History 19, no. 2: 137–162. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed August 1, 2010).
- ^ "British social policy, 1601-1948". An introduction to Social Policy. Robert Gordon University. Archived from the original on 20 July 2007.
- ^ S2CID 159489267.
- ^ Thomas E. Hachey, Joseph M. Hermon, Jr. and Lawrence J McCaffery. The Irish Experience: A Concise History; (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1996) 92–93 [ISBN missing]