What were the main terms of the 1834 poor law amendment act?

Question 1

What did the bill reflect?

Answer 1

• the bill reflected the recommendations of a report of the poor law commissions and the report itself was based on a mass of carefully collected evidence

Question 2

What did the bill do?

Answer 2

• the bill did exactly what the MPs wanted it to: it aimed to reduce the cost of providing for the poor by providing for them efficiently
• there was little opposition as the bill went through a series of stages before becoming an act

Question 3

What was the purpose of the act?

Answer 3

• the purpose of the act was to radically change the system of poor relief in England and
  Wales, making it cost effective and efficient

Question 4

What did the act lay down?

Answer 4

• a central authority should be set up to supervise the implementation and regulate the administration of poor law
• parishes were to be grouped together to form poor law unions to provide relief efficiently
• each poor law union was to establish a works house which inmates would live in conditions taht were worse than those of the poorest independent laborer
• outdoor relief for able bodied pauper was to be discouraged but wasn’t abolished