3. Why were some people dissatisfied with the treatment of paupers by 1834?
The Old Poor Law on the whole worked well until half way through the 17th century. As the parishes controlled the poor in their area everyone knew each other, but soon paupers were moving from their parishes to other parishes. This caused problems for the parish’s officers. The problem was who paid for their poor relief? In 1622 an act was set up allowing parishes to send people from other parishes away after 40 days. The only way the pauper could stay in that parish for more than 40 days was if they could get their home parish to agree that they’ll pay back the new parish for the money spent on the pauper.
The other problems were overseers couldn’t find any work for the able-bodied paupers, the usual work soon ran out. In 1722 an act became in law, parishes had to build workhouses. Workhouses were expensive to build and to maintain. Parishes preferred the outdoor relief due to the expense of the workhouses, the outdoor relief was cheaper for the parish, and it was also easy for the officers to make the paupers do only occasional work. As each parish used either outdoor relief or the workhouse the system was very inconsistent and due to this it turned to be inefficient
People were dissatisfied with the way paupers were being treated due to the new poor relief top ups, they knew many paupers weren’t working, paupers did this as they could get a wage that they could live off from the parish. They were only dissatisfied up to 1834 due to a new Poor Law brought in to lower the increase in paupers due to the Speenhamland System.
People saw how the paupers were receiving money for having more children this was increasing the poor. These children born had to be cared for and most of them ended up in the Speenhamland System. People were also dissatisfied seeing this system encouraging people not to work so they could receive this wage.
The cost of the old Poor Law was very expensive this was shown by the Royal Commission with great detail to get the message across. In 1823 the old Poor Law was costing the government £8million a year the old Poor price only cost £1.5million a year in 1776. The rise in the cost of the old Poor Law was due to the Speenhamland system keeping up with the increase of the bread prices and due to the rise in population meaning the government had to deal with more paupers.
The Old Poor Law was also very inefficient; Britain was changing and the Old Poor Law set up in 1601 was getting out dated. Parishes were too small and officers were not paid these were the main causes of inefficiency. There was an inconsistent price paid to the poor, this made people apply for it only when the price was better than usual work; the rounds man system was mainly being used instead. Many parishes did not have a workhouse.
The allowances also did not encourage people to begin work again as soon as it came up. People were not working and living off these allowances. If they worked hard to earn more money, labourers would receive less.
By the 1830’s the low poor rate showed how inefficient the system was, as the industrial revolution was coming to an end people could see a huge rise in the unemployed. The ideas of strict work houses for paupers would not be able to deal with the mass of unemployed. Paupers started to set up anti-poor law committees to show their dissatisfaction to the government. Petitions were sent to Westminster and meetings were held for the anti-poor law groups. Attempts to put this new system into working order were met by riots organized by paupers.
The new Poor Law was the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, in 1832 Early Grey was appointed to look at the System for to years they searched and inquired and my 1834 they had a report on the system. In 1834 a much harsher Law was put through parliament and was voted for this new law meant paupers received less and cost the government and taxpayer less money.
4. Are these reasons equally as important in bringing about the Poor Law Act of 1834?
The increased cost of the Old Poor Law to the government, the new increase in population and number of paupers, the systems that had been used and were starting to fail, the number of parishes and how each one had a different system were all reasons for bringing about the Poor Law Act of 1834.
Before the French and English wars grain was cheap to import meaning the price of bread stayed low and the Speenham land system worked well. This was only costing the government 2million a year for poor relief. By 1812 the bread price rose the importing of bread became expensive and the poor relief rose causing the government pay for the poor relief to rise to 8 million a year. The cost of the poor relief continued to rise; the Speenhamland system had made the increase even higher due to the inflation rate of the bread prices. The parishes could not manage to keep up with the inflation by 1834 something had to be done and an investigation was set up.
The population of the poor was rising; people out working noticed the new pay for the poor. The old Poor Law before 1834 encouraged a lot of people to become lazy, the poor relief enabled them to stop working and have enough money to live off. There was no law or officer that stopped the people working if they didn’t work they could receive the poor relief. The new machinery used on farms meant farm laborers were looking for new jobs and with the increase in population meant there was a high level of unemployment causing a problem for the poor relief.
The number of large family in the poor areas of Britain increased beyond belief due to the Speenhamland system. The Speenhamland System encouraged the poor to have big families to get more poor relief due to the amount of money issued to larger families. The more children in a family meant the more money issued. This was so the families could survive, parishes issued money to the larger families using the Speenhamland system to keep the children alive but it only encouraged more people to have more children.
The rising cost of the poor law had to be stopped parishes weren’t getting enough money from the workhouses and they were soon running out of jobs to give the paupers. The increase in poor due to the encouragement of stopping work meant it was costing the government a lot of money, the paupers needed to start working again.
The population was increasing and so were the number of poor people before 1834, this was becoming a big problem and the government and parishes couldn’t afford the increase. Workhouses would have to be made harsher and people on poor relief would have to receive less money.
Due to the Speenhamland system giving out more money to the larger families people were having more children increasing the population and birth rate the Speenhamland system needed to be stopped to keep the number of poor down.
I would say each reason caused a big problem for the government and each in there own right brought about the Poor Law Act 1834. The rising cost of the poor relief was too high for inflation and was unfair for paupers in different parishes. This inflation rate of poor relief and the increase in population meant the government wouldn’t be able to afford the poor relief for much longer forcing them to introduce the Poor Law Act 1834. The encouragement of large families wasn’t a major issue many of these children died at a young age but still the other children were being used to get more money. The larger families mainly caused problems once they had left home due to the lack of interest in working most of these children went on the poor relief increasing the number of poor. The increase in families caused the cost to rise.
The Poor Law Act 1834 was introduced by Edwin Chadwick and the Government Commissioners. I feel the reason that made the Poor Law Act 1834 be brought it was that the government could not afford the new increase in the number of poor but all the reasons that we looked at are linked with this. The increase in poor and decrease in jobs along with the inflation rate meant the country couldn’t last long using the Speenhamland system and needed a change (The Poor Law Act of 1834).
