Elizabethan Poor Laws Essay

The basic principles of the Elizabethan Poor Laws of 1601 were “local investigation and administration of relief, work as a component of all assistance, and categorization of the poor into three groups: the able-bodied poor, the impotent poor, and dependent children” (Day & Schiele, 2013, p. 104). Basically, creating a welfare system to help assist the poor, implementing programs to get people working, and categorizing the poor as worthy or unworthy poor. Examples of this in the present social welfare system are TANF, unemployment insurance, Social Security, SSI, and SDI. Within the TANF and unemployment program, there is a job search requirement to encourage people to find work. Also, much like the Elizabethan Poor Laws, people are categorized to receive specific benefits based on whether they can work or not, like SSI, which is for people who are currently unable to work because of old age or disability.

The Poor Law The Poor Law was a system established since the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, about two hundred years before the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. In this system the able-bodied poor should be set to work, whilst the others had to be provided for by their parish of birth. By 1795 when the whole system was under strain, an attempted solution was the Speenhamland system also know as the allowance system that was devised in 1795.

Over the last century health and social care has changed and developed immensely with the implementation of the NHS and becoming a welfare state. Prior to this health care was only available to a minority of people, those who could afford it. In 1815 the old poor law was passed, it stated that each parish must look after its own poor and those who could not work were provided enough money to help them survive. By 1830 the poor law cost around £7 million, which came from taxing the middle and upper class, causing a sense of resentment towards lower class, unemployed people. In 1834 the new poor law was passed, its aim was to reduce the cost of looking after the poor. Workhouses helped with this, they provided clothes, food and healthcare in return for manual labour. Despite

Although, Slavery had existed for centuries as a lowest social status in different parts of the world like Africa, Roman Empire, Middle East and etc., in English colonies slavery gained an importance, because of increasing demand for labor force and becoming relationship legitimated by law. Therefore, Englishmen were the reason of slavery in the colonies and its consequences.

Elizabeth I, was the queen of England 1558-1613, while she may have brought great success and stability to the government she was questioned in her ability to lead due to her gender. Gender became a critical part of her reign and was brought into question by numerous religious figures. Although most thought a woman was unfit to be a ruler, this did not stop Elizabeth from responding to the criticism with determination to making wise and selfless decisions that proved what a strong leader she was. This determination and leadership fueled the country with success.

The town council of Dijon, France proposed to care for the poor using their own utilities of shelter during the 15th century (doc. 2). The poorhouses of Suffolk County, England required harsh treatment of the poor (doc. 7). Being of England during the height of poverty, the poorhouses of Suffolk County complied with the English Poor Laws, legislation that supported harsher treatment of the poor for their impotence and begging. Jean Maillefer stated that the poor of the seventeenth century have grown independent from higher classes, begging less for the charity of others (doc. 11). Having listened to the poor, Maillefer concluded that their simple life does not need assistance from wealthy merchants such as himself. As the amount of poverty in Europe rose, the care for their well-being dwindled from the volunteered charity of the 15th century humanists, to the institutionalized subsidizing of the 16th century resulted from the growing poverty, to the lack of aid in the 17th century resulted from the independence of the poor away from the care of the upper

The Elizabethan Era took place from 1558 to 1603. The Elizabethan era is also known as the Golden age and was during Elizabeth I reign. This epoch in English history witnessed many threats and changes in the tide of social, political and artistic life in England. This epoch was during the time of the Renaissance and was an age of exploration and expansion abroad. This was the last period before England joined a union with Scotland.

The welfare reform law in 1996 mostly tried to solve marital evils rather than efficiently dealing with welfare. It encouraged marriage and attempted to lower single parenthood. However, when one looks at this issue, this is mostly a gender status issue rather than an income issue. Also, many policymakers impose conditions to families receiving governmental benefits. Although I acknowledge that these policies attempt to solve problems with poverty, I disagree with how the policymakers approach these issues. Instead of focusing on incomes of each family, they mainly focused solving social issues. Would you say that poverty is caused by single mothers? What if I told you that marriage rates have fallen since the 1960s? Our policies are indifferent to these questions. The policies mainly focused on the shortcomings of the poor rather than trying to save them from poverty. J.D. Vance mentioned that low-income children face childhood trauma that affects them, and the despair and low social capital these families are going through. Focusing on the crimes parents do mainly out of desperation rather than malicious intent to pass welfare bills would be even more traumatizing to kids. We probably are not doing much to help the impoverished if we are focused attacking the moral shortcomings of poor families rather than implementing policies to help families in general.

All throughout history welfare services have been available to the general public. While these benefits have changed over time, the basic intentions of the welfare system has stayed the same. The welfare system provides benefits and monetary assistance to those who qualify. Different acts over the past two hundred years have been amended in order to try to help the poor, and while not all have been practical and successful, many programs have indeed done an outstanding job in aiding those in need. But, just like with all good things, there is a negative side. Even with all the reforms to try perfect the welfare system there are still some holes in it. Not only is the welfare system easy to manipulate, according to usgovernmentspending.com, eleven percent of the federal budget is spent on welfare, leaving tax payers livid. (usgovspending.com) It 's obvious there is a need for a welfare system in the United States, but with the abuse the welfare system has endured a major change needs to be seen in order to ensure the welfare system be used as efficiently as possible.

The Poor Law act 1601 was introduced and classified the poor into three groups, setting policies for each, the impotent poor, able bodied poor and persistent idler. It viewed poverty as the fault of the person, not their situation. Following industrialisation and a decrease in agricultural jobs, workers moved to factories working for low pay and in appalling conditions, but those needing employment outweighed the availability of such.

In 1935, Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the Social Security Act which, among other things, provided for the financial, medical, and material needs of the poor (Komisar 125,128). Since then, there have many additions and reforms to the bill, none of which has served to quell the controversy surrounding the effectiveness of the welfare system in the United States. The main concerns of the distribution of welfare dollars and resources can be answered by the questions ?Who gets assistance?? and ?How much do they receive??. The U.S. welfare system is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, which attempts to answer these questions through a system of minimum incomes, government-calculated poverty levels, number of children, health problems, and many other criteria. This complicated system leads to one of the critiques of the welfare system?that it is too large and inefficient. President Lyndon Johnson declared a ?War on Poverty? in 1964 designed to alleviate the burden of the poor and established the Food Stamp program the next year (Patterson 139). In 1996, a major welfare reform bill was passed that placed time limits on welfare assistance, required able participants to actively seek employment, and implemented additional services for the needy (Patterson 217).

Prior to the Poor Law Amendment Act there was the Elizabethan Poor Law 1601 which was more generous towards the poor. It was becoming impossible for the government to sustain this law due to the growing costs. Statistics show that in 1802 the expenditure on poor relief was costing the government £4,078,000, this figure continued to

The Poor Law was introduced because it was too much money to pay to look after the poor, so in hopes to take the poor off the streets and to stop money going to the poor the government introduced the law in 1834. The law was also put in place to embolden the poor to get back into work and support themselves, There was a law before 1834 called the "Old Poor Law" this was found to be insufficient because there was nothing in place to help the poor because even though they set up workhouses for the poor they didn't offer accommodation for the poor. There was an act passed in 1795 called "The Speenhamland System" which allowed employers to pay their workers exceptionally low wages during these years the middle and the upper classes were getting more angry because they were the ones paying for the poor who would avoid not going to or do any work.

The Magna Carta is the most famous document in British history, being introduced and signed by King John in 1215. The Magna Carta opened the doors to democracy in England and America. The Magna Carta or the “Great Charter” has been hailed as the “sacred text” of liberty in the Western World. The Magna Carta set the foundation and basic ideas for modern democracy. It gave the people basic rights and abolished absolute monarchy for England. The Magna Carta provided and built the foundation for modern democracy with its premises the government guarantees basic rights for the people, established a basic rule of law and allowing a group to govern rather than an individual.

American factories can comprise of about up to 1000 workers. If American factories are shut down and moved to other countries, this takes many American people out of work. Companies are now also importing jobs. This is where employers hire people such as immigrants to work less than minimum wage. For that reason, many Americans are stuck with the other minimum wage, and low-paying jobs that barely get them through life. Because of this, many Americans are working full time jobs that are below the Federal poverty line. These types of people are often called the “working poor”. Due to this the working poor have to run to welfare. This affects all Americans because taxpayers are the ones paying for welfare. The more jobs that are taken