Liberal reforms - workhouses

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  • Created by: Naomi
  • Created on: 16-05-13 19:17
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  • How the poor were dealt with before the Liberal Reforms
    • Parishes were to group together to form unions
      • In each union there would be at least one workhouse
    • The government took no part in saying looking after the poor except that it passed a law saying how it should be done
      • Law was passed in 1834
    • Only those with no money or prospects would end up in the workhouse
      • They were worse to live in than where the lowest paid lived
        • The idea was that they were so bad that the fear of ending up there would make any lazy worker try harder to avoid it
          • This fear would reduce the amount of people who were poor
    • A board of guardians were elected by the local community to run the workhouse
    • The funds for starting up the workhouse were to come from the Parishes. They were the result of charity giving
      • After a little time the workhouses had enough money to pay their own bills and would cost the community nothing
    • Once inside the workhouse it was difficult to leave
      • A person could only leave if they could prove that they could support themselves
        • They could not however get a job to support themselves whilst they were working in the workhouse
    • Parents with children who were admitted to the workhouse had to take their whole family in
      • This condemned the next generation to a life of poverty
    • In the workhouse the inmates had to work at tasks which required little skill and nobody else wanted to do

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