The current system, managed to provide a relative system of dependence. The Speenhamland System, provided a variable amount of relief according to the size of a labourers family and the fluctuating price of bread, this system merely encouraged and in some cases larger families and consequently more labourers than was necessary to maintain constant levels of employment.
The New Poor Law was initially influenced strongly by Benthamite and therefore Utilitarian ideologies, the call for a Royal Commission was eventually needed and begun in 1834. The beginning of such social reform policy initially seems favourable, when the report is considered further it becomes clear that impartiality in compilation and completion has not been adhered to.
The commissioners approached t5he task with clearly defined pre-conceptions; that the old law exacerbated the problems that it was designed to alleviate, clear conclusions had already been reached before the compiling and conclusions of the report were initiated.
Although the Poor Law Commission undoubtedly managed to strongly emphasis and sometimes exaggerated the extreme the extent to which the old system created poverty rather than solving it: “ If a system of allowances is adopted in a parish…the whole of the labourers are made paupers….one impoverished farmer turns off all his labourers….they cannot employ their own shares and pay the rest too in poor rates…All grow poor together.” The Forging of the Modern State
The solution of reducing poor rate expenditure by introducing a workhouse system, and further proposed segregation and restricted application within the workhouse.
In practice the Poor Law Amendment Act, proved to be far removed from the Act envisaged by the blinkered Benthamite commissioners. The local systems put in place often gave those in charge, little or no power, no political will or motivation, and many failed to impose the uniform regulations which were essential for the Act to have a successful result.
Most boards of guardians erected one large workhouse building, which was directly against the segregation principle stipulated in the Act, the prospect of workhouse internment in this case was not as repulsive a prospect as intended. This situation could have occurred purely as a result of there being limited clear, central involvement and the limited local resources available although state provision should have been made available to remedy this problem.
In strong Tory constituencies the workhouse system was not introduced at all, local commissioners weakly it seems bowing to political pressures, receiving no central back-up.
Rural workhouse building managed to continue at a reasonable pace, although widely and especialliy in urbanised areas, the building programme did not come to fruition until the 1850’s whilst respecting time scales for the building projects there seems to have been a significant lack of motivation and commitment.
Provision in the industrial North appeared to have been lacking in the extreme (the Report based its findings rather narrow-mindedly on the investigations carried out in the South), the unemployment problem here was much larger, by 1870 4/5 of the 647 Poor Law Unions had built the new workhouses required.
The Act in practice managed to deviate largely from the theory, the research into the provision of poor relief was corrupt and inaccurate, external factors such as the economy, unemployment, emigration were not considered.
The administrative structure on the whole was more cost effective, although it lacked the central control desperately needed. The Act managed to reach its largest aim, which was to reduce the expenditure concerning poor relief: £7m in 1831 to £4.6m in 1840, the workhouse, made undesirable did not attract as larger number of applicants as previously seen.
In conclusion, the Act managed to achieve its aims at a limited level, the biggest achievement being the reduction in expenditure, the greatest failure of the Act was the degradation now afforded to the working class poor and the problems that needed to be alleviated the most were ignored.
