Systems of Outdoor Relief

Speenhamland System

Widely used, though mostly in the South, rarely used in the North
Introduced in 1795 by magistrates
In town of Speenhamland, Berkshire (which is where the name comes from)
Way of providing relief by subsiding low wages
It established a formal relationship between the price of bread and the number of dependents in the family
Adopted in the South and East of Britain at the beginning of the 19th century
Often abandoned/modified out of all history, as overseers struggled to cope with economic conditions, especially after 1815
Was given a huge bashing in the the 1832 Royal Commission

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.Overseers did not directly top up low pay
They instead levied a parish rate to cover the relief of the able bodied poor
And set a wage for each unemployed labourer
Ratepayers who employed these labourers and paid them the rate set by the parish, didn't have to pay into the poor rate
By 1832, about 1 in 5 parishes were operating on some sort of Labour Rate system

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Common variant on the Labour Rate system
Able bodied pauper labourers were sent round the parish until they found a parish rate payer to employ them
The ratepayer paid the pauper a wage agreed with the overseer
And they made up the rest from the poor rate
Nicknamed as ticket/billet system
Because the overseer signed a ticket for the pauper to take a potential employer
Which authorised the pauper to work under the parish relief system
Work completed- pauper returned the ticket to the overseer, signed by employer to show the work had been completed
The overseer would then make up the difference from poor rates
In some parishes, based on bread and the size of the pauper's family
In other parishes, a flat rate would be paid

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