The aims and principles of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act.

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Module tutor - Stephen Cunningham.

The aims and principles of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act.

In the decades prior to the national reform of the Poor Law in 1834, the characterisations of the administration were of variety rather than uniformity. The social and economic changes at this time produced many problems for those that were responsible for the social welfare. Many areas throughout the country though found solutions to this problem within the legal frame-work of the Elizabethan Poor Law of 1597-1601.

In the initial stages the amendment act was set up to reduce the amount of poor rates that were being paid. In the first ten years of the amendment act the amount of relief being paid was reduced to a national average of four million to five million a year.

One of the principles of the amendment act was to encourage the 'poor' to work for what they received because poverty was looked upon as the fault of the individual, so therefore the amount of relief that was payable was set at a rate that was lower that the lowest paid labourer. This was enforced to dissuade people from claiming benefits, so