The Poor Law Board, 1847-75 (3.5)

The Poor Law Board, 1847-75

1847 - government replaced the Poor Law Commission with the Poor Law Board
intended to link more firmly to government
made up of a president and 2 secretaries who undertook the day-to-day work
the president was an MP
those who were responsible for the administration of the poor law were andwerable to parliament and responsive to public opinion
George Nicholls was appointed permanent secretary to the Board
number of assistant commissioners increased from 9 to 13

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1847 - became apparent that it was going to be impossible to abolish outdoor relief
the infrequent visits of the assistant commissioners meant that local variations became the norm
1846 - 1,300,000 paupers in England and Wales
only 199,000 of these recieved relief inside union workhouses
1852 - poor law board made an attempt to incarcerate all the able-bodied paupers in workhouses by issing a general order forbidding outdoor relief to the able-bodied - it failed
in East Anglia in 1860 it cost 5 and a half d a week to keep a pauper in a workhouse and 1s 9d if that same pauper was on outdoor relief
early 1860s - American cotton crop failed, causing a crisis in the Lancashire cotton mills
thousands of operatives needed short-term, outdoor relief
the Public Works Act 1863 allowed local authorities to borrow money to set up work schemes to employ paupers

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poor law amendment act of 1834 recommended the separation of different categories of paupers within a workhouse and that the paupers within each category should be treated differently
this had enormous cost implications, so the general mixed workhouse became the norm
after 1834, children under the age of 16 made up around one-third of all paupers in workhouses
the poor law schools act 1848 allowed poor law unions to combine to provide distrcit schools, where pauper children were educated in buildings seperate from the workhouse in which they lived
1850 - some boards of guardians abandoned district schools in favour of smaller, on-site schools where boys were taught a trade and girls learned domestic skills
the forester's education act 1879 set up board schools where there was no church provision, and guardians were encouraged to send their pauper children to these, enabling them to mix with children outside the workhouse

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boards of guardians frequently left their sick, injured and pregnant paupers to be treated in their own homes by poor law medical officers
this was one of the major forms of outdoor relief after 1834
1840 - only £150,000 from a poor law expenditure of £34.5million went on medical services
1850s - poor law unions set up public dispensaries which dispensed medicines to the general public as well as to paupers
poor law medical officers began complaining through the poor law medical officers' association and through the workhouse visiting society about the coditions in workhouse hospitals
1866 - The Times embarked on a campaign intent on demonstrating that sickness and poverty were different and should be treated separately
sick paupers were to be treated in hospitals that were seperate from the workhouse
the metropolitan poor act 1867 had organised london into 'asylum' districts, which provided hospitals
the poor law was therefore beginning to provide a national, state-funded system of medical care for paupers and the poor

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each parish within the union had to pay for the maintenance of its own paupers
parishes with the most paupers had to levy the highest poor rates, and these were the parishes that were the least able to afford them
union chargeability act 1865 - placed the financial burden of relief on the union as a whole
each parish contributed to a common fund and its contribution was based upon the rateable value of properties in the parish, not the number of paupers for whomm the parish was responsible
poor law loans act 1869 - attempted to ease the situation by allowing guardians to extend the repayments on loans from the public works commissioners to up to 30 years
guardians could thus contemplate applying for the level of loan that would enable them to upgrade their facilities without adding too much to the poor rate they levied

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