The Poor Law

Before 1900 there were no old-age pensions or free health service in Britain. And there were no state payments for those too sick to work or for the unemployed. Instead, there was the Poor Law. This was meant just for the very poor - the old, the sick, and the starving.

Each parish had an 'overseer of the poor'. His job was to collect rates from the heads of households (most men in the parish). He used the money to help those in need. (But he had to be careful not to give out too much!) If they wished, parishes could join together, build workhouses, and make the old, the sick, and orphans live in them.

The parish of Speenhamland in Berkshire began 'topping-up' the wages of low-paid farm workers in 1795. This 'system' soon spread through most of southern England. It had two very bad effects - the farmers paid even lower wages than before, and the poor rates had to go up to meet the cost.

The act which Parliament passed in 1834 was meant to make the Poor Law cheaper. It said that groups of parishes had to build workhouses. In future, 'able-bodied' poor would get help only if they came into the workhouses. And workhouses were made unpleasant, to discourage idlers. The food was poor, discipline was strict and families were split up.

Poor rates were cut by half after the 1834 act, and rate-payers were pleased. But poor people hated the workhouses. And the new law did not really work. In times of slump and high unemployment, there was no room in the workhouses for all those who needed help. So they were given 'out-relief' – they got Poor Law money while they stayed at home.

Walter Robson: Britain 1750 – 1900; Oxford University Press, 1993/2002, page 52