How do you agree that poor relief after PLAA evidenced a more positive concern for the well being of society??

Question 1

1834 PLAA

Answer 1

Agree:

• opposition from tories came with the argument that the new system ignored the ‘poor unfortunates’ who did not had the same advantage as the rest of society and strengthened the paternalistic sense of morality which had previously been seen in society
• argued that employers were purposefully keeping wages low, and the PLAA was trying to end this

Disagree:

• Less eligibility(applied to workhouses that were built for able bodied people who couldn’t work)
• utilitarian principal that deliberately made poor relief harsh so that only the most destitute and poor people would apply for it
• outdoor relief discouraged for able bodies paupers
• workhouses were terrible for workers; they had. very basic diet, worked long days with no breaks, stone breaking in Guildford
• resentment of the system was purely cost related due to the comparatively higher cost of relief in workhouses than outdoor relief, especially the north
• poor relief was continued due to hatred of workhouses, suggesting they were not good for the well-being of society ie Lancashire and Yorkshire 1838

Question 2

Growth of charity, self help, philanthropic enterprises

Answer 2

Agree:

• workhouse visiting society in 1858 collected info on the experiences of the poor to gain a better understanding of poverty and organising private relief
• the lancet 1865 was a medical journal which investigated the quality of health care in London, workhouses, led to metropolitan poor act 1867
• Angelina Burdett Coutts was a leading female philanthropist and inherited £1.8MN, set up a hospital in 1847 with Dickens called Urania for prostitution as well as funding education projects for Britains poorest
• Dickens had experienced 1st hand poverty from age 12 and was committed to finding other alternatives, developing a strong social conscience and giving a voice to the poor- most famous for Oliver twist in 1839

Disagree:

• Self help and collectivism by people like Owen had more of an economic motive more than anything rather than direct positive concern for society
• charity organisation society 1869 reinforced earlier problems of deserving v underserving, and instead of helping everyone they just wanted to help the deserving get back on their feet.

Question 3

Other government laws

Answer 3

Facts:agree

• 1842 outdoor labour test order is passed formally allowing the use of outdoor relief for able-bodied workers during times of economic decline, despite the PLAA prohibiting it. Some level of concern for society, but only in poor economic climates
• 1867 Metropolitan act: demanded separate medical facilities from workhouses and provided for the creation of the metropolitan asylum board to look over sick paupers.
• paved the way for more specialised care of the sick but also began to modernise the system of the general poor relief, more concern for society

Disagree- 1852 outdoor relief regulation order passed bringing an end to the provision of poor relief

• seems purely cost related again and the shift towards the workhouses even though they were worse for the welfare of people in poverty, less concern for society
• 1844 outdoor prohibitory order passed to try and bring an end to outdoor relief, obvious attempts to direct poor people towards work houses

Question 4

Andover and Huddersfield scandal

Answer 4

Agree-

• being known as a scandal and being criticised by John Walter at the Times perhaps indicative of their being a more positive concern towards poverty due to the outrage
• Poor Law Commission was dissolved following Andover and replaced with a Poor Law Board which signalled relief brought more closely under government control
• As a result of the scandals, Henry Mayhew published London Labour and the London Poor in 1849 that concluded that it was poor wages that produced pauperism because they were insufficient to protect the recipients from unforeseen fluctuations in the economy. This challenged the belief that idleness was the real cause of poverty.

Disagree-

• They were both symptoms of a government which did not care about the well-being of society.
• Despite the scandals, a further 100 workhouses were built between 1851 and 1866 to augment the 402 which had been constructed immediately after 1834.
• their existence showed that even by 1845 after PLAA the workhouses were epitomising deterrence ie Andover where people were starved, abused and punished by sleeping in mortuary

Whilst the actual existence of these events was symptomatic of a society that was not concerned with their poorest, the scrutiny and outrage that they afterwards created ensured that the consequence of them was a greater social interest in the well-being of society