English Poor Laws

Catholic church had structures for taking care of poor; when Protestants took over, they ended many of those; led to the Poor Laws

Note: w/ each act, the size of the system of relief & the cost of the system increased; Also, w/ each act the administration of the system of relief become more centralized, less locally controlled

1601 Elizabethan Poor Law - Church of England no longer taking care of poor - Types of poor: able bodied, idle, impotent - Law was based on local parish where everyone is known (case by case basis) - Relief was money/food or person sent to almshouse, orphanage, workhouse - vast majority was money/food

• a compulsory poor rate to be levied on each parish
• the creation of 'Overseers' of relief
• the 'setting the poor on work'
• the collection of a poor relief rate from property owners

Problems: Inconsistent application led to travelling beggars who would go to the most generous parishes.

1662 Settlement Act

• can't move around easily. Parish only supported locals living in parish
• farmers would hire outside of parish. Firing them would not add costs to support poor
• landowners reduced amount of housing to reduce cost to support poor
• workers could not easily move to find jobs elsewhere leading to a labor imbalance; labor shortages & labor surplusses

1723 Knatchbull

• parishes could combine forces in administration of relief so farmers could not exploit borders
• transition to workhouses. You had to work to get relief. No work, no relief.
• workhouses were inefficient & unkind to workers

1765 Gilbert Act

• parishes created poor houses for the infirm b/c workhouse didn't cover them
• land owners & employers receive allowances for poor people they hire to increase wages; incentive to hire poor
• brought the wealthy into the system directly & expanded relief

Wars w/ France

• imports drop due to war & prices for bread rise
• unrest of poor
• additional war tax on top of poor tax

1795 Speenhamland System

• not a law, but broadly adopted
• every laborer would have his wage supplemented by parish to be "livable"
  • supplement depended on family size & price of bread
  • employers could lower wages & allow relief workers to still survive
  • employers would pay same low wages to people who did not take relief out of principle
  • wages fell forcing people either to starve or join subsidies
  • led to hardship for poor & expansion of the costs for wealthy
  • other taxes from war were compounding problems MalthusMalthus
    Malthus
    Wrote Malthus, Essay on the Principle of Population
    
    ![[Malthus, Essay on the Principle of Population#Summary]]
    wrote during this system, and was prob influential in leading to amendment

1834 Poor Law Amendment Act

• nationalizes the relief
• establish efficient local administrative units
• make regulations for the general administration of relief
• no more wage/money/food supplements
• workhouses & poorhouses only source of relief (not uniformly applied)