Poor Relief Act 1662
7 January 1662 | |
Other legislation | |
---|---|
Amended by | |
Repealed by | |
Status: Repealed | |
Text of statute as originally enacted |
The Poor Relief Act 1662 (
After 1662, if a man left his settled parish to move elsewhere, he had to take his settlement certificate, which guaranteed that his home parish would pay for his "removal" costs (from the host parish) back to his home if he needed poor relief. As parishes were often unwilling to issue such certificates, people often stayed where they were – knowing that, should they become
The 1662 Act stipulated that if a poor person (that is, resident of a tenancy with a taxable value less than £10 per year, who did not fall under the other protected categories) remained in the parish for forty days of undisturbed residency, he could acquire "settlement rights" in that parish. However, within those forty days, upon any local complaint, two
The settlement laws benefited the owners of large estates who controlled housing. Some land owners demolished empty housing in order to reduce the population of their lands and prevent people from returning. It was also common to recruit labourers from neighbouring parishes so that they could easily be sacked. Magistrates could order parishes to grant poor relief. However, often the magistrates were landowners and therefore unlikely to make relief orders that would increase poor rates.
The Settlement Act was repealed in 1834 (under the terms of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, which introduced the union workhouses), although not fully. The concept of parish settlement has been characterised as "incompatible with the newly developing industrial system", because it hindered internal migration to factory towns.[2]
It was finally repealed by section 245 of, and Schedule 11 to, the Poor Law Act 1927 (c. 14) and by the Statute Law Revision Act 1948.
Settlement terms
To gain settlement in a parish a person had to meet at least one of the following conditions:-
- Be born into the parish.
- Have lived in the parish for forty consecutive days without complaint.
- Be hired for over a year and a day that takes place within the parish – (this led to short lengths of hire so that settlement was not obtained).
- Hold an office in the parish.
- Rent a property worth £10 per year or pay the same in taxes.
- Have married into the parish.
- Gained poor relief in that parish previously.
- Have a seven-year apprenticeship with a settled resident.[3]
Notes
- short title was authorised by section 1 of, and Schedule 1 to, the Short Titles Act 1896. Due to the repeal of those provisions, it is now authorised by section 19(2) of the Interpretation Act 1978.
- ^ These words are printed against this Act in the second column of Schedule 1 to the Short Titles Act 1896, which is headed "Title".
References
- Statutes of the Realm: Volume 6, 1685-94, ed. John Raithby (s.l, 1819), pp. 19-20. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/statutes-realm/vol6/pp19-20[accessed 24 October 2019].
- ISBN 978-1-4128-0852-1. Retrieved 1 August 2009.
- ^ The 1662 Settlement Act
Sources
- Text of the Act – 'Charles II, 1662: An Act for the better Releife of the Poore of this Kingdom.', Statutes of the Realm: volume 5: 1628–80 (1819), pp. 401–05. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=47315. Date accessed: 18 September 2007.
- Workhouse.org.uk – Full Text of the Act