Historical Trends Of Human Service Policy

The Europeans between the 1450’s and 1700’s held many negative attitudes towards the poor themselves and the idlers who they believed were a menace to society. Also during this time period the Europeans had many responses like in England where they put them in poorhouses or tried to heal them or in others places where they tried to give them alms.

The origins of the concept of social welfare are undetermined, however, during the 1800’s, the United States began establishing and reforming social welfare programs funded by the American tax dollars to assist the poor, disabled, and elderly. As time has progressed, more and more citizens have become dependent on social welfare, causing its virtuous purpose to become muddled amongst a sea of outstretched hands. The Italians knew what they were talking about; public money is like holy water, many see it as an unalienable and natural right bestowed upon them by God. But like public money, as the pool of holy water sits

The historical definitions of worthy and unworthy poor come from the early 1600’s for dealing with the poor. Family was expected to take care of other poor family members (Hansan, 2011). The worthy poor are to be considered true victims of poverty. They were pregnant women, people who are truly unwell and unable to work or someone over the age of sixty. These were the people that were allowed to beg on the street since the government deemed them worthy (Martin, 2014, p.21). The unworthy poor were the legally defined drifter, or beggars. If people were able to work but they were without a job, they were whipped, marched through the streets, returned to where they came from, or thrown in jail. Repeat offenders of begging often had ears cut off or were killed (Martin, 2014, p.21).

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.

Philip D. Morgan argues that although masters continued to “emphasize order and authority, they were more inclined emphasize their solicitude toward and generous treatment of their dependents.” (Morgan). With this being said, it exemplifies that not only did the apparent shift affect slaves, but also the master’s children. In a typical 18th century household, the man saw over everyone,

Between 1450 and 1700, attitudes toward the European poor changed dynamically, roughly following a three-part cycle. In the late 1400's, the poor were regarded with sympathy and compassion; generous aid from both public and religious institutions was common. By the 16th Century, however, the poor were treated with suspicion and harsh measures, to ensure that they were not becoming lazy, using welfare as a substitute for labor. Beginning in the 17th Century, the attitudes toward the poor again shifted, returning to more sympathetic views and responses, though many members of the upper-class still retained the negative outlook on the destitute of the 16th Century.

DBQ: Analyze attitudes toward and responses to “the poor” in Europe between approximately 1450 and 1700.

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

People in authority tend to disregard those who and that which does not benefit them, since the poor did not seem to benefit anybody, people in authority found them useless. For instance, Emperor Charles V wrote an imperial decree for the Netherlands in 1531, where he stated that alms should not be given freely to the Europeans living in poverty, in doing so not only does he believe they will fall into idleness but he thinks they will take advantage of this and live their lives based off of alms, and that it will soon lead to all evils (document 2). He states that “beggars and their children will abandon their trade or occupation for a wicked and contemptible life… above all those who are poor and sick, and other indigents unable to earn

During the mid 15th century to the early 18th century almost half of Europe’s total population could be considered poor and destitute. The attitudes of the clergy and the attitudes of the socially elite toward these people varied from pity to disgust, and their proposed solution to these problems differed. Some suggested helping all of the poor by giving them alms, some warned others to be careful of whom the money was given to and some people believed that being poor was a voluntary decision and if they wanted to get out of that situation, they do so without the help of others. In particular the clergy supported alms giving, government officials and the nobility advocated controlled giving, and some of the middle class were suspicious

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.

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.

This essay will consider whether the welfare state has eliminated poverty. It will examine what poverty is and how the definition varies from societies. The essay will look at the aims of the welfare state from conception and how it has changed to present times. The welfare state being analysed is the welfare state in the United Kingdom. It will discuss the nature of the social democratic welfare state and liberal criticisms of the problems this type of state brings. The recent changes to the welfare state will be reviewed and what the consequences of the changes may be. It will then look at recent statistics to determine whether the welfare state has eradicated poverty.

With the limited opportunities offered in today’s job market anyone would give up their rights to make ends meet to achieve their daily living expense. According to Gans, H. (1971) “Merton pointed out how the political machine provided central authority to get things done when a decentralized local government could not act,” which helps maintain and balance the central economy. Consequently, Herbert J. Gans would further discuss the unusual alliance between the poor and the rich through his thirteen functional policies, which he felt would highlight the reasoning for poverty. Therefore, the first of Herbert J. Gans policies discuss that any and all dirty work would be attended by the lower class or anyone desiring to make a living at low wages