The poor had to agree to go to the workhouses and obey the parishes and the pearls. Those who refused feared unemployment. The reign of Elizabeth I, Edward VI`s successor after Mary I, also tended to be severe. A law passed in 1572 required that offenders be burned in the ear for a first offense and that persistent beggars be hanged. But the law also made the first clear distinction between the „professional beggar” and the unemployed through no fault of their own. Early in her reign, Elizabeth I also enacted laws aimed directly at helping the poor. In 1776, a government survey of workhouses was conducted, which revealed that in about 1800 institutions, the total capacity was about 90,000 places. Under the new system of Poor Law Unions, workhouses were run by „guards” who were often local businessmen who, as Dickens describes it, were ruthless stewards who sought profit and took advantage of the plight of others. While parishes, of course, were different – there were some in the north of England where the „guards” had supposedly taken a more charitable approach to their guardianship – inmates in workhouses across the country were at the mercy of the character of their „guardians.” The lesson can also serve as a starting point for examining the new Poor Act in more depth and discussing attitudes towards the poor in 19th century Britain. […] for the poor of early Philadelphia were shaped by the principles of the English law on the poor and were administered by churches and private organizations, especially the Quaker Friends Society. Public opinion on the new Poor Law was divided. The cost of caring for the poor became a burden on the middle and upper classes, as they paid for the bare necessities through local taxes. Before 1834, the cost of caring for the poor was rising every year.
These costs were paid by the middle and upper classes of each city through their local taxes. There was a real suspicion among the middle and upper classes that they were paying the poor to be lazy and avoid working. One of the greatest administrative changes resulting from the formation of the New Poor Laws was the reorganization of parishes into unions for the rights of the poor. This new formation of boundaries within counties was essential to the implementation of the new Poor Law, as there had to be a well-regulated workhouse in each union. Each union was to have its own supervisors, called the Council of Guardians. These committees should be composed of paid staff who should then maintain the workshops, provide assistance to those in need and provide assistance. In terms of workhouses, they were made to keep the poor separated in terms of gender and age – this included separating children from their parents. [3] This was based on Malthusian and Benthamist principles that were popular at the time, especially among members of the government. In fact, these ideas had a huge impact on the Royal Commission on the Poor and the report it published.
When the new change was applied to the industrial north of England (an area that the law had never taken into account in reviews), the system failed disastrously, as many were temporarily unemployed due to recessions or a decline in demand for inventories, known as „cyclical unemployment”. and were reluctant to enter a workhouse, even though it was the only method to get help. Nottingham also obtained an exemption from the law and continued to offer outdoor assistance. [77] Our editors will review what you have submitted and decide whether the article needs to be revised. During World War I, there is evidence that some workhouses were used as makeshift hospitals for wounded soldiers. [93] [94] [95] In the interwar period and between 1921 and 1938, the number of poor laws increased, although unemployment insurance was extended to virtually all workers except the self-employed. [96] Many of these workers received outside assistance. One aspect of the Poor Law that continues to arouse resentment is that the burden of helping the poor is not shared equally between rich and poor areas, but falls more heavily in areas where poverty is highest. This was a central theme of the Poplar Rates rebellion, led by George Lansbury and others in 1921. [97] Lansbury had written a provocative attack on the Workhouse system in a pamphlet entitled „Smash Up the Workhouse!” in 1911.
[98] www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/oliver-twist-and-the-workhouse Read more about Oliver Twist and the Workplace The Poor People`s Act, founded in 1601, has been in effect for more than two centuries. By the time of the nineteenth century, poverty rates (a local tax to fund aid to the poor) were exponentially high, there were tensions between social classes, and many wealthy people saw that there were abuses of the aid system. Thus, in 1832, a royal commission was set up to fully investigate the old Poor Law and its „abuses” and make recommendations for its amendment. The Poor Law Commissioners, along with their deputy commissioners, searched across the country for evidence of how the old Poor Law worked. However, it is widely accepted by historians that the commissioners were in fact looking for evidence that matched their preconceptions. This is evidenced by the fact that the questionnaires they sent to cities and parishes went mainly to rural communities in the south. These rural communities have experienced a high level of external assistance, particularly in the form of child support, and the increase in wages of able-bodied workers. These elements of the old Poor Act, according to the commissioners, justified the term abuse.She and many others came up with the idea that giving outside help to the employable poor was unfair and an abuse of the existing aid system. Ideally, they wanted the able-bodied poor to be relieved in the working house, where they would „deserve” their relief. In 1834, two years after the creation of the Commission, the famous Commissioners` Report was published. Its thousands of pages consisted of the „evidence” they had gathered and contained the New Poor Law proposal.