Poor Law - 3.3

Question 1

what did the parish do to look after the poor before 1834?

Answer 1

• set the poor rate (a compulsory tax for poor relief)
• determined who was eligible for relief and how much
• decided what relief was suitable
• often done by overseers who were unpaid, non professionals (e.g. church wardens, local farmers, and respectable home owners)
• overseers were appointed by justices of the peace

Question 2

1662 settlement act

Answer 2

said that the parish responsible was the one in which a person was born, married, served an apprenticeship or inherited property

Question 3

issues due to the importance of settlement in the poor law

Answer 3

• there were increasing issues posed by a mobile population
• due to the settlements law being deliberately ambiguous many people were left along until they tried to claim relief on their own
• provided immense squabbling, prevaricating and litigation between parishes as overseers were also mindful of the of the burden of the Poor Rate levied on their own parish property owners

Question 4

opportunities of the Elizabethan poor law

Answer 4

• provided motivation to become ‘deserving poor’ promoting hard work and ambition
• poor rate was set by individual parishes so could be tailored to suit the area
• range of professionals not being paid meant they were likely to be more passionate about the administration of the poor law, preventing involvement for monetary reasons

Question 5

Problems of the Elizabethan poor law?

Answer 5

• the elites are in control and so are less aware of what is most needed. This also creates problems between class relationships
• not everyone is eligible for relief so there’s a deficit between the number of paupers claiming relief and those receiving help
• settlement act is unclear and difficult to enforce
• whilst being unpaid may create more passionate overseers, in practice it just meant there was less of a desire to enforce it properly
• taxing in the poor rate caused resentment and personal grievances

Question 6

deserving poor

Answer 6

poor through no fault of their own

e.g. old, sick, children

Question 7

undeserving poor

Answer 7

those who’s poverty was the result of some sort of perceived moral failure like drunkenness or prostitution

Question 8

impotent poor

Answer 8

paupers who couldn’t look after themselves even when times were good
e.g. old, disabled

Question 9

idle poor

Answer 9

those who refused to work and continued a life of begging or crime

Question 10

able-bodied poor

Answer 10

paupers who wanted relief but could still work

Question 11

indoor relief

Answer 11

help for the poor provided inside, within a house or institution

• between 1601 and 1835, the scope for indoor relief rapidly increased but outdoor relief still remained more popular
• by the end of the 18th century, one in seven parishes ran their own workhouses, providing relief for approximately 90,000

Question 12

why was indoor relief so popular?

Answer 12

• easy to control as they’re in one place
• good for the economy as work is given as a byproduct of relief
• parishes could amalgamate their work with other parishes working collaterally as a union, alleviating their responsibilities and creating ‘economies of scale’
• number of people seeking relief usually declined due to the harsh working conditions made worse by Knatchbull’s ‘workhouse test act’
• created opportunities to privatise workhouses bringing down the cost for parishes and encouraging the elite to get involved
• good morally as shows concern but people aren’t on the street worsening the image of the area.

Question 13

types of indoor relief

Answer 13

• workhouses
• correction houses
• almshouses
• orphanages
• infirmiries

Question 14

drawbacks of indoor relief

Answer 14

• many were privatised or run like businesses leading to cost cuts and poor conditions, this meant many avoided asking for help
• people were excluded like the able bodied
• voting system introduced meant that the higher the status, the greater the input. These people were disconnected from paupers so had little knowledge of what was really needed
• outdoor relief was still the most common way of giving help
• only two administrative changes were mandatory and imposed by law
• no wages were given in workhouses so despite providing sufficient relief the long term quality was lost as paupers became reliant on them making them lifelong residences meaning it became impossible to escape the cycle of poverty.

Question 15

benefits of outdoor relief

Answer 15

• speenhamland system established a clear criteria for deserving and underserving. Better than indoor relief due to the axiomatic personal grievances that influenced the classing systems of vestry’s
• better in the long term as helped people to escape cycle of poverty that many were forced into during poor times of harvest for example. This was something the was unachievable within the constraints of a workhouse.
• less of an economic benefit so rather than being run for profit, administration and reasoning stayed far more moral so the quality of the service was maintained.
• paupers preferred it

Question 16

roundsman system

Answer 16

• local farmers would provide work and wages for a pauper and the parish would supplement the rest until sufficient relief level was reached. a ticket system was used as proof
• yet farmers took advantage by paying low rates forcing the parish to pay more as there was no strict criteria

Question 17

speenhamland system

Answer 17

• 1795
• subsidised low wages, establishing a formal relationship between the price of bread and the number of dependants in a family.
• generally used in slack times of the agricultural year and seasonal unemployment
• some parishes took each child into consideration, others didn’t increase relief unless the number of children was above a certain level

Question 18

the labour rate

Answer 18

• helped to avoid the pitfalls of the roundsman system as created a labour rate in addition to the usual poor rate
• ratepayers who employed pauper labourers paid them a rate set by the parish and in turn were exempt from paying the poor rate into the general fund
• those who didn’t pay the going rate had to pay the differences between the wages they were paying and the going rate into the poor rate
• by 1832, 1/5 parishes were operating some form of this.

Question 19

limitations of outdoor relief

Answer 19

• difficult to administer as not everyone is in the same place
• less relief can be given in terms of quantity of paupers as it is more expensive. this created a deficit between the number of supers claiming relief and those receiving it. this was exacerbated by greater demand for it than indoor relief as it had a more pleasant nature
• often abused e.g. Roundsman system was this left excessive amounts of money to be supplemented by the parish - less favoured and sustainable.

Question 20

what was outdoor relief?

Answer 20

relief given outside of an institution from the parish directly to the poor
e.g. cash or food

Question 21

what did Gilbert aim to do?

Answer 21

-by 1782 he became head of over 60 workhouses and endeavoured to make them more cost-effective and efficient

Question 22

what were Gilbert’s administrative changes?

Answer 22

• parishes could combine as a union if 2/3 of major ratepayers voted in favour, encouraging the gentry to get involved
• overseers of the poor were to be replaced by guardians appointed by local magistrates. they often worked on site becoming real experts in their field and streamlining the system
• annual returns of poor Lae expenditure so kept comprehensive records, forcing comparisons between parishes, narrowing the gap between private donations and parish ones
• ministers were required to provide information to paupers before they became institutionalised about local charities that provided relief, this was humanitarian
• able bodied workers were excluded from Gilbert’s union workhouses (solely for the ages, sick, and children rather than places for the destitute)

Question 23

what were Sturges-Bourne’s administrative changes?

Answer 23

• 1819 and 1818
• voting system for those in the parish to chose overseers, guardians or vestries. parishioners could vote, their vote counting more if they had a higher status. this encouraged them to take an interest in poor relief
• added a resident clergyman to be a member of the vestry who would decide if the poor were deserving. This decision could be overturned by two justices of the peace. This meant defining the poor became simpler and it also gave authority to the upper class.

Question 24

how did the swing riots provide a pressure for change?

Answer 24

• urban protests started due to rural discontent
• wanted higher wages and the removal of machines that replaced labour
• in Hampshire, workhouses were torn down and there were movements against overseers in Sussex
• petitions were regularly signed Captain Swing giving the impression revolts were under a single reader and therefore that the threat was more substantial
• 19 sentenced to death, 400 sent to Australia, many imprisoned

Question 25

How did the napoleonic wars provide a pressure for change?

Answer 25

• greater demand for poor relief as many returning soldiers were unable to find work from the parish, increasing claims and leaving it in a state of collapse
• cheaper foreign corn could be imported from Europe as the war had ended forcing English farmers to keep prices low.
• many couldn’t pay loans going bankrupt increasing unemployment and forcing people not pauperism
• corn laws led to riots as people couldn’t afford food (this banned imports arguably keeping prices artificially high)

Question 26

limitations to pressure of riots

Answer 26

• organisational and economic reasoning were lesser as tended to be sporadic and localised providing less of a national altercation
• ban on Habeas Corpus (this had prevented secret imprisonment) and the introduction of the Six acts (prevented meetings of more than 50 people and made freedom of speech an offence) meant that go could limit the growth and power of the movement (e.g. 400 to Australia)
• despite feelings of disgruntlement in all likelihood being expressed from very early on within the scope of the old poor law, acts of violence only became commonplace in the 1800s so cannot constitute a long term motivation for change

Question 27

How did Jeremy Bentham create a pressure for change?

Answer 27

• proposed the idea of utilitarianism whereby society should be organised for the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.
• relief was a public responsibility and should be organised by central government
• gov ministers to be responsible for keeping statistics and inspecting workhouses
• outdoor relief should be abolished and there should be no discrimination between the deserving and undeserving poor
• wants to reform the poor law to please the elite as he argues this is the best way to make society happy.
• cannot be attributed with providing widespread control and organisation, but his prominent role in social circles help to adapt the way gov believed society could be run

Question 28

ideological arguments from Thomas Paine

Answer 28

• proposed a property tax on the vert rich would be used for family allowances and old age pensions
• said the able bodied should go to workhouses before receiving relief

Question 29

ideological argument from Robert Owen

Answer 29

• ‘abuse of the factory system’ heightened poverty
• in Scotland he built a factory community: schools, no corporal punishment, restrictions on working hours
• this was there was no need for poor relief for anyone other than the impotent poor

Question 30

ideological argument from Thomas Malthus

Answer 30

• argued that the poor law encouraged the poor to have more children to claim more relief
• suggested the poor law should be scrapped and that the poor would therefore reduce the number of children they had, reducing the future levels of pauperism
• this directly impacts government in terms of economic implications as less money would need to be invested into providing sufficient provisions, helping to guarantee future economic stability

Question 31

ideological arguments from David Ricardo

Answer 31

• said that as so much money was given via poor relief, this impacted directly on the wages genuine workers were paid and hence were forced into pauperism.
• the only way to abandon this vicious cycle was to abandon poor relief altogether

Question 32

drawbacks of individuals

Answer 32

• despite providing a new light on economic and administrative reasoning to reform the system there is no evidence that they were long term
• differed in the specifics providing no streamline reason to reform the system - the economic and organisational aspects were on a lesser scale

Question 33

faults in previous administration (regional disparities)- pressure for change

Answer 33

• regional differences meaning that depending on the area differing amounts of paupers were receiving help (9000 in Yorkshire, 3000 in Sussex)
• different counties had adopted different approaches (e.g. a cost effective, minimalistic approach as seen in Nottingham or a paternalistic approach like in Berkshire. this had led to widespread regional disparities from very early on within the period providing a long term incentive for change in order to create the moral and economic continuity the gov had battled with for years

Question 34

faults in previous administration (abuse of the system) -pressure for change

Answer 34

• in terms of outdoor relief and more specifically the Roundsman system, farmers would deliberately provide pauper labourers with a low wage leaving the parish to subsidise more than was initially intended
• economic implications as was draining parish funds and therefore economic stability, wasn’t sustainable
• organisation implications as highlighted a lack of control over the elites as they had started to manipulate the system. wanted to reform to regain control of upper class initiatives