The Poor Law

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The Poor Law

The Poor Law was a system established since the reign of Queen

Elizabeth I, about two hundred years before the Poor Law Amendment Act

of 1834. In this system the able-bodied poor should be set to work,

whilst the others had to be provided for by their parish of birth. By

1795 when the whole system was under strain, an attempted solution was

the Speenhamland system also know as the allowance system that was

devised in 1795. This was devised to relieve the acute distress of the

poor by giving money to families calculated according to the number of

children and the price of bread.

As the Poor Law was becoming increasingly costly throughout the years,

there had to be change in order to protect the ratepayers and

government alike. Apart from the cost of the Poor Law, other factors

such as War, possible revolution under the influence of 1830’s French

Revolution, ‘laissez faire’, over-population, corruption,

demoralisation, the results of the Royal Commission and the role of

important individuals have helped to convince the government that they

had to react to the distress and abuse that existed and that the Poor

Law was not doing what it was intended to do originally: provide for

those who genuinely needed it. This led to an inquiry into the

situation so as to reform the system and make it more efficient and

cost effective. Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) and David Ricardo

(1772-1823) both advocated change and strongly believed that the

abolition of the Poor Law would make wages rise because the poor rate

would no longer be levied and employers could afford to pay more and

therefore everyone would prosper.

By 1830 it has...

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...st this and believe that it had other motives

behind it. For example the Marxist perspective maintains that the Act

was “nothing more than a naked class exploitation by the newly

enfranchised middle classes.” Therefore, by holding down the poor rate

by making harsh and unacceptable workhouses, the poor were forced to

work for lower wages. The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 was the most

significant development in the history of poverty and welfare in the

nineteenth century, but on the other hand it was hated by the poor who

had to live with the threat of the workhouse. From then on workers

were forced to take responsibility for their own economic situation

and had to take employment at any wage. Therefore workers had to find

alternative ways of coping with poverty because the State had

withdrawn its traditional support.

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