THE POOR LAW

• Poor rate paid by property owners in Parish.
• Overseer (unpaid) collected poor rate and gave to needy.
• Flexible- Different parishes had different systems:
• Roundsman system (5% of parishes) ticket to employer. Paid what would have got poor rate- wages low no incentive to work.
• Speenhamland system sliding scale-based on price of bread.- Expensive
• Workhouse- very few.

WHY PROBLEMS BY 1815

• Increased numbers claiming poor relief. Why? High food prices, changes- Farming, trade depression.
• Some felt 'outdoor relief' abused by some poor.
• Costs rose 4 null- 7 null, 1803-1832.
• Some overseers imcompetent.

VIEWS OF COMMISSION

• Cost of relief rising. 
• Local admin- inefficient/corrupt.
• Main problem-outdoor relief.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• End outdoor relief for able bodied poor.
• Establish one system of poor relief run by a central board.
• Make parishes join together- build and run workhouses.
• Give poor relief only to those in a workhouse.
• Make workhouses- worst option.
• Seperate men, women and children in the workhouse.

2 MAIN PRINCIPLES.

• Uniformity
• Less Eligibility

WHAT IT DID.

• Central poor law commission
• Edwin Chadwick- secrerary to the commissiom
• Grouped parishes- UNIONS. By 1838-573 unions
• Each union-elect Board of Guardians who run the Poor Law.
• Workhouse-centrepiece of new system.

• Families split
• Strict discipline
• Diet-plain and sparse
• Intention- unpleasant
• Quality of people running workhouses varied

SOUTHERN ENGLAND- SUCCESS BECAUSE.

• Good harvest.
• Low unemployment.
• People who paid poor rate- happy therefore less.
• Poor- fewer therefore good economic conditions.

NORTHAN ENGLNAD- NOT SO SUCCESSFUL BECAUSE.

• Fluid employment, many out of work-short periods therefore outdoor relief better.
• Poor-powerful-as industrial therefore closer together, therefore organised opposition.
• Labelled WH- Bastille.
• Many factory owners opposed.

WEAKNESS OF LAW.

• Areas with fluctuation in employment- WH not good.
• Commissioners- too much power.