Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
- Created by: georgiaj96
- Created on: 17-05-14 10:14
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- Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
- Why was it passed?
- No change in the dealing with the poor since 1601
- The poor were tied to their parish-Outdoor relief
- Population doubled since 1750- the poor became an expensive burden
- Malthus (economist) predicted large numbers would starve and there would be a famine
- Speenhamland system encouraged the poor to have large families
- Set amount of bread per child. Price of bread increased
- Result of Grey setting up the Poor Law Commission in 1833 to examine the working of the Poor Law system
- Report published in 1834
- The process of the Act took a year
- The Royal Commission
- 8 Commissioners
- Headed by Nassau Senior-an economist
- Chadwick was an assistant Commissioner-he gave Utilitarian views
- Malthus and Bentham influenced the 300 paged Report
- The 'workhouse test' was established to abolish outdoor relief. To claim relief you must enter the workhouse
- 'Less eligibility'-workhouse conditions to be worse than those outside
- Segregation of sexes in the workhouse to limit the number of potential paupers
- Centralisation- parish responsibilities to pass to Poor Law Unions
- By 1839 15 000 parishes of Britain had been grouped into 600 unions and 350 workhouses had been built
- Anti-Poor Law Movement
- The Commissioners had less power than what was suggested in the Report
- Tory Paternalists believed it destroyed a traditional understanding between the rich and the poor
- Working class radicals saw it as an attempt to subjugate the working class
- Centralisation was objected to
- The workhouses terrified the poor
- Protest was strong in the Midlands and the North
- There were public meetings, mass meetings, press campaigns and local attempts at obstruction
- The South wasn't as organised
- Chartism grew out of the movement
- Why was it passed?
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