The operation of the pre and post 1834 Poor Law Act

The operation of

the pre and post 1834 Poor Law provision

Written by Amanda Evans

17th February 2008

Describe the operation of the pre and post 1834 Poor Law provision

In the late sixteenth century local parishes were responsible for looking after the poor such as widows, orphans, the sick and the unemployed. People could only receive poor relief money from the parish where they were born, thus people did not move too far away from their parishes.

The parish authorities, factory owners and the local magistrates used a form of taxation for all householders and land occupiers to pay for poor relief. Not only did the parishes have to provide benefits for the poor they also had to organise work for the able-bodied persons who were unable to support themselves.

The authorities built workhouses, or poor houses, as they were known, mainly to shelter people who could not look after themselves and for the unemployed to enable them to work for their relief.

The poor were placed into two categories: the deserving poor where people who were unable to work as they were too old, in poor health or unable to find work and the undeserving poor where able bodied people did not want to work.

The payment of poor relief varied throughout the parishes. It was not given evenly to everyone as it was up to the individual parishes to determine the system of payment. During the eighteenth century pay relief was paid to all the poor, deserving or undeserving, however after the eighteenth century the system could not cope with the increasing amount of unemployed, who abused the system, or the low wages that would not support a family.

The 1790’s saw the advance of agricultural labour saving machinery, which caused a high level of unemployment in rural areas. This put a huge strain on the poor relief system, which could not find work for all the able bodied poor.

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Magistrates at Speenhamland, Berkshire, added a new thread to the poor laws in 1795, as wages of poor labourers were topped up. The relief payments were dependant on the size of the family and the price of bread. Payments were made out of the parish poor rates and became known as outdoor relief. The top up scheme raised the level of poor rates, which other parishioners had to pay. It set a minimum wage for all people in a parish. As the system spread the farmers realised that they could keep wages low, as the parish authorities would top up the low wages. This consequently encouraged able-bodied people to have large families in order to avoid work.

At the end of the Napoleonic War 1815, demands for goods from the army dropped. Soldiers returned home and were unable to find employment. This contributed to the large amount of unemployed and subsequently drove down wages as people were competing for jobs. In addition to this, numbers of workers were unable to support themselves on such low wages, thus the poor rate was increased.

The Speenhamland system caused panic in the property owning classes, as they were the ones who paid most of the poor rates. The system only encouraged labourers to be lazy and discouraged farmers from taking on labour and paying it properly. As a consequence, land went out of cultivation.

With a slump in the economy between 1830-31, there were violent protests by farm labourers against low wages, unemployment and the introduction of new machinery that reduced the labourers’ work. These outbreaks that occurred were known as the ‘Swing Riots.’ As a result of this, the Whig government were pressured to initiate action. 1833 saw many changes as a commission was selected to investigate the poor relief system.

The government looked at saving money that was spent on poor relief rather than relieve the dilemmas of the poor. The commission report recommended that a Poor Law Amendment Act, 1834 be introduced. The act outlined that ‘no fit or able-bodied person nor the impotent poor should receive outdoor relief’ which included those who were too old, too young or ill.

The conditions in workhouses were to be made horrendous in order to deter people from wanting to enter them. small parishes were ordered to group together to make large unions. Each union would have separate workhouses for the able-bodied, impotent and the undeserving poor. In order to operate the system each union was to have paid officials and the act was to be supervised by a commission of three London based men; Edwin Chadwick was its secretary.

The Poor Law introduced changes in the way which parish relief was given to the poor. Outdoor relief was banned even for the elderly and ill. Chadwick established a principle of ‘less eligibility’ to make people use the workhouses as a last resort. Each parish union had to build a workhouse to accommodate the poor, they were made extremely stark and cold and served with terrible food.

The 1834 Poor Law act was popular with the majority of ratepayers as people only went into the workhouses if they were destitute, as they had to carry out demeaning tasks like criminals. Honest workers who became unemployed through no fault of their own, preferred to die rather than see their hardworking character permanently tarnished. This lowered the tax rates for ratepayers, however the system was cruel and cold-blooded, it blamed the poor for their poverty and unemployment identifying them as idle or drunkards. Trade slumps were not taken into consideration even though most poor could not find work no matter haw hard they tried.

Workhouses separated families and children, sending them to work in different workhouses. Workhouses and guardians were attacked as hostile demonstrations transpired against the law. The labourers who lived in the south, having their wages topped up by the old system, were now reduced to poverty wages preventing them from supporting themselves.

Thousands of people were unemployed during the 1837-38-trade recession, which made the system impossible to work in the south. There were too many people who needed to be accommodated in the workhouse. If they were not paid outdoor relief the poor would starve in their thousands. As the regular trade slumps caused large amount of unemployment, the parish guardians failed to accommodate the people into the workhouses. This resulted in the commissioners being forced to pay outdoor relief and 1847 saw a Poor Law Board set up to replace the commissioners.

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