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The Poor Law was the system for the provision of social security in operation in England and the rest of the United Kingdom from the 16th century until the establishment of the Welfare State in the 20th century. It was made up of several Acts of Parliament and subsequent Amendments. The extreme longevity of the Poor Law meant that some of the generalisations made about it (for example the use of workhouses) refer to only a part of its history.
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The classification of the poor
During the time of the Poor Law system in Britain, the poor fell mainly into three categories:
The 'impotent' poor could not look after themselves or go to work. They included the ill, the infirm, the elderly, and children with no-one to properly care for them. It was generally held that they should be looked after.
The 'able-bodied' poor normally referred to those who were unable to find work - either due to cyclical or long term unemployment in the area, or a lack of skills. Attempts to assist these people, and move them out of this category, varied over the centuries, but usually consisted of relief either in the form of work or money.
The 'vagrants' or 'beggars', sometimes termed 'sturdy rogues', were deemed those who could work but had refused to. Such people were seen in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as potential criminals, apt to do mischief when hired for the purpose. They were normally seen as people needing punishment, and as such were often whipped in the market place as an example to others, or sometimes sent to so-called 'houses of correction'.
Graves & Silcock (1986) also described another way of sub-categorising the poor. Although the three main types overlapped each other to some extent, they were sufficiently distinct to be recognized as different causes requiring different treatments:
Chronic poverty: the permanently unemployed who were thought to be vagrants and criminals - these were feared.
Case poverty: widows, orphans, old people, disabled - these were seen as 'deserving' poor who should be provided for as a duty with their parish.
Crisis poverty: due to bad harvests, depression and demobilisation at the end of wars. This was the most serious because it also hit those who gave relief.
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Poor relief before 1601
1552 - Parishes began to register those considered 'poor'.
1563 - Justices of the Peace began to collect money for poor relief. The poor were grouped for the first time into the impotent poor, idle poor and able-bodied poor (unemployed).
1572 - First local poor tax to fund poor relief.
1576 - Idea of a workhouse first suggested.
1579 - Justices of the Peace authorised to collect funds for poor relief. The post of Overseer of the Poor was created.
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The Act of 1601
See main article Elizabethan Poor Law (1601)
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Poor Law Amendment Act
See main article Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
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The Poor Laws in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales
In 1838 the Poor Laws were extended into Ireland, although a few poorhouses had been built before that time. The workhouses were supervised by a Poor Law Commissioner in Dublin. The Irish Poor Laws were even harsher on the poor than the English Poor Laws; furthermore, the Irish unions were underfunded, and there were too few workhouses in Ireland. As a result, the Irish Potato Famine became a humanitarian catastrophe.
Scotland launched its own Poor Law system in 1579. As the Act of Union which united England and Scotland did not alter Scotland's legal system, this Poor Law system did not disappear after 1707. Reforms similar to the English reforms of 1834 were made in 1845.
The English Poor Laws applied in Wales.
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The end of the Poor Law
The reforms of the Liberal Government 1906-14 made several provisions to provide social services without the stigma of the Poor Law, including Old age pensions and National Insurance, and from that period fewer people were covered by the system. Means tests were developed during the inter-war period, not as part of the Poor Law, but as part of the attempt to offer relief that was not affected by the stigma of pauperism.
Workhouses were officially abolished by the Local Government Act 1929, which from 1 April 1930 abolished the Unions and transferred their responsibilities to the county councils and county boroughs. Some however persisted into the 1940s. The remaining responsibility for the Poor Law was given to local authorities before final abolition in 1948.
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See also
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