TO WHAT EXTENT DID CENTRAL GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF POOR RELIEF CHANGE IN THE YEARS 1847-80?

Question 1

Before 1834 Poor Law administration, how had the Andover Union in Hampshire been regarded?

Answer 1

• model union- outdoor relief has been abolished, strictest dietary plan was used in the workhouse.

Question 2

Because of its reputation, what happened when Colin M’Dougal and his wife were appointed as master and matron of the Andover Union? What was the consequence of this?

Answer 2

• guardians were so confident they had the right people they only made brief inspections.
• reports began coming out that not all was well.

Question 3

How did the commissioners react to the rumours about the Andover Union?

Answer 3

• they issue was brought up in parliament to be serious, so the Poor Law commissioners ordered assistant commissioner Henry Parker to investigate.

Question 4

What was discovered in the Andover Union when it was investigated?

Answer 4

• sexual abuse of female paupers by M’Dougal and his son.
• serving less food than the worst dietary to the point where paupers were sucking meat from the bone marrow they were making fertiliser from.

Question 5

How did the Poor Law commissioners try to free themselves from the blame of what had been happening at Andover?

Answer 5

• sacked M’Dougal.
• blamed Parker for not uncovering the abuse sooner, even though they had reduced the number of of assistant commissioners from 21 to 9.
• sacked Parker.
• issued an order forbidding bone crushing.

Question 6

How did Parker strike back to the Poor Law commissioners blaming him for the Andover scandal?

Answer 6

• he wrote a well-argued pamphlet through gaining support from Chadwick and from an enquiry by the select committee in the Commons.
• the report was extremely critical of the Poor Law Commission, and shook up the administration.

Question 7

How did Andover scandal (1845-46) contribute to the end of the Poor Law Commission?

Answer 7

• revealed the worst abuses of the workhouse system and the apparent lack of willingness of the commission to detect and correct it.

Question 8

What else did the select committee discover in their enquiry?

Answer 8

• considerable tensions in the Somerset House where the commission worked- Chadwick didn’t accept well his low position of secretary and he used Andover to attack his superiors.

Question 9

When did the Poor Law Commission end and what was it replaced with?

Answer 9

• 1847- replaced with the Poor Law Board.

Question 10

What was the aim of the new Poor Law Board?

Answer 10

• rid the administration of the Poor Law arrogance, rigidity and hypocrisy.
• link it more firmly to the government.

Question 11

What positions did the Poor Law Board consist of? Why was it set up like this?

Answer 11

• president (MP) and 2 secretaries to undergo day to day work.
• several cabinet ministers on the board.
• those responsible for Poor Law administration were answerable to parliament and responsive to public opinion.

Question 12

How did the Poor Law Board not signal a complete break from the original Poor Law commissioners?

Answer 12

• George Nicholls (original commissioner) appointed as secretary of the Board.
• most of the assistant commissioners stayed on abs were renamed ‘Poor Law inspectors’, but numbers increased from 9 to 13.

Question 13

What had become clear by 1847 about relief and why? What statistic proves this?

Answer 13

• it was impossible to abolish outdoor relief- it was an easier solution for short term difficulties and lacking visits from assistant commissioners meant it was easy to flout the rules.
• 1846- approx 1,300,000 paupers in England and Wales, only 199,000 received relief inside union workhouses.

Question 14

What did the Poor Law Board attempt to do in 1852 in terms of relief? Was this a success?

Answer 14

• issued a general order forbidding outdoor relief to the able-bodied.
• it failed- many guardians used loop holes (eg: sickness in the family) to continue outdoor relief.

Question 15

Why were guardians so keen to give outdoor relief rather than indoor relief? What statistics support this?

Answer 15

• poor rates were rising again- outdoor relief was the cheaper alternative.
• East Anglia 1860- cost 3s 5.5d a week per pauper in a workhouse, only cost 1s 9d for the same pauper to receive outdoor relief.
• London 1862- cost 4s 8d a week per pauper in a workhouse, only cost 2s 3d for the same pauper to receive outdoor relief.

Question 16

What happened in America which made outdoor relief even more appealing? How did government action further this?

Answer 16

• early 1860s- American cotton crop failed causing crisis in the Lancashire cotton mills.
• 1000s of workers required short term relief.
• Public Works Act 1863- allowed local authorise to borrow money to set up employment schemes for paupers- the principle of abolishing outdoor relief had been breached, importantly by parliament.

Question 17

Who were the rigorous and deterring principles of the Poor Law Amendment Act aimed at?

Answer 17

• able-bodies men- never intended that the should be applied to more vulnerable members of society.

Question 18

Before the Poor Law Board, how did able bodied and vulnerable paupers receive relief in the workhouse?

Answer 18

• attempted to categorise paupers but completely separate treatment would be too costly.
• general mixed workhouses were the norm.

Question 19

What were the general beliefs about pauper children when the Poor Law Board began its work?

Answer 19

• they shouldn’t mix with pauper adults.
• growing belief that education was the way to ensure that pauper children didn’t return to the workhouse as pauper adults.

Question 20

What fraction of all paupers in workhouses did children make up after 1834?

Answer 20

• 1/3.

Question 21

What was the first Act passed to improve the education of pauper children?

Answer 21

• Poor Law (Schools) Act 1848- allowed Poor Law unions to combine to provide district schools where pauper children were educated in buildings often far away from the workhouse.

Question 22

What did some boards of guardians replace district schools with in the 1850s?

Answer 22

• smaller, on-site schools where boys were taught a trade and girls learnt domestic skills.

Question 23

What did some guardians begin experimenting with in the 1860s?

Answer 23

• boarding pauper children with working class families.

Question 24

What did the 1870 Forster’s Educarion Act do?

Answer 24

• set up board schools where there was no church provision.

* guardians encouraged to send pauper children to these, allowing them to mix with children outside of the workhouses.

Question 25

What cause of poverty did the Poor Law Board begin to recognise more widely?

Answer 25

• illness of the main breadwinner in the family.

Question 26

What did the Poor Law Amendment Act do to try, but failed, to help ill workers?

Answer 26

• medical officers- but they were poorly paid and ultimately part of the disciplinary structure of the workhouse.

Question 27

In 1840, what proportion of Poor Law expenditure was spent on medical services?

Answer 27

• £150,000 out of £34.5million.

Question 28

What development was made under the Poor Law Board throughout the 1850s to treat ill paupers and the general public?

Answer 28

• Poor Law unions set up public dispensaries, dispensing medicine to the general public and to paupers.

Question 29

From 1852, what happened when a poor person couldn’t afford medical treatment?

Answer 29

• a poor person who couldn’t afford medical care automatically qualified for outdoor relief.

Question 30

How did the idea that pauperism and illness should be treated separately come about?

Answer 30

• Poor Law medical officers began complaining about the conditions in workhouse hospitals.
• newspaper The Times began a campaign for separate treatment of poverty and illness- Gathorne Hardy (Poor Law Board president) agreed.
• change in policy- sick paupers were now to be treated away from the workhouse.
• pauper hospitals- often the only places working class people could get medical help.

Question 31

What did the 1867 Metropolitan Poor Act do?

Answer 31

• organised London into districts, providing general, specialist, isolation and mental hospitals.

Question 32

What did the new medical provisions under the Poor Law Board show about the Poor Law?

Answer 32

• beginning to provide a national, state funded system of medical care to the poor.
• the connections between medicine and less eligibility were broken.

Question 33

What Act stopped the issue of too much burden being placed on individual parishes with lots of paupers who therefore had to pay higher poor rates? How did it work?

Answer 33

• 1865 Union Chargeability Act- placed the finish yak burden of relief on the union as a whole rather than just individual parishes.
• each parish contributed a common fund, which was based upon the rateable value of properties in the parish, not the number of paupers the parish was responsible for- allowed richer parishes to subsidise poorer ones.

Question 34

What did the 1869 Poor Law Loans Act do?

Answer 34

• allowed guardians to extend the repayment of loans from the Public Works commissioners to up to 30 years- meant guardians could upgrade the their facilities (eg: separate accommodation for different classes of paupers) with out adding too much to the poor rates, that they were liable to.

Question 35

When was the Parliamentary Reform Act?

Answer 35

1867.

Question 36

How much did the Parliamentary Reform Act extend the electorate by?

Answer 36

• doubles from 1 million to 2 million men- the respectable working class could now vote.

Question 37

How did the 1867 Parliamentary Reform Act impact on Poor Law policy?

Answer 37

• increased pressure from radicals to democratise the elections of guardians. Since 1834, the election of guardians was based upon plural voting-the greater the amount of property a ratepayer owned the more votes they had, giving rate payers dominance in rural parishes. 1868- Poor Law Board combined parishes for the purpose of electing guardians. But they did move slowly- over 10 years only combined 580 out of 6,111 parishes.
• government became more aware and concerned for the welfare of the people- needed a degree local administration to implement new legislation.

Question 38

What took over the Poor Law Board and when did this happen?

Answer 38

• the Local Government Board.

* 1871.

Question 39

What did the Local Government Board aim to do?

Answer 39

• reduce the number of paupers receiving relief.

Question 40

What action did the Local Government Board take?

Answer 40

• issued a circular condemning outdoor relief- said it discouraged paupers to save for bad times by offering relief whenever they needed it.
• supported local authorities when they took a harsh line with able-bodied paupers asking for relief. Deterrent workhouses were set up giving the undeserving poor harsh work- able to do this as charities were beginning to give help to the deserving poor.
• authorised boards of guardians to take part in emigration schemes- groups of paupers/ pauper families were sponsored to emigrate.

Question 41

What statistics prove the Local Government Board helped to bring down the number of paupers receiving relief? Did they manage to reduce outdoor relief too?

Answer 41

• 1870- 1,033,000 paupers relived.
• 1880- 793,000 paupers relied.
• slightly- outdoor relief remained more common than indoor, but the proportion of the those receiving outdoor relief to those receiving indoor relief fell.
• 1870- 157,000= indoor relief; 876,000= outdoor relief.
• 1880- 215,000= indoor relief; 577,000= outdoor relief.