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Poor Relief In The 19th Century

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Introduction:
In British and Irish history, the term ‘poor relief’ is referred to the government and ecclesiastical action to alleviate poverty. Throughout the centuries various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should finance the cost of helping the destitute. With changing attitudes towards poverty over the years, many methods have been attempted to solve the problem. Since the early 16th century legislation on poverty enacted by the English Parliament, poor relief has developed from being little more than an organised means of punishment into a compassionate government-funded approach providing support and protection, especially following the creation in the 1940s of the welfare state.

In this essay I plan to discuss the rationale underpinning the provision of poor relief in the 19th …show more content…

This was because the rising costs of social welfare provision became a considerable amount and there was a spreading disincentive to work as the relief provided was usually better than some jobs’ salaries. Also, providing relief to the able-bodied poor had pauperised a large section of the population. The term ‘pauper’ comes from this era, describing a person who seeks welfare from the state. There was a system of indoor and outdoor relief. Indoor relief, by means of entering the workhouse to receive relief, and outdoor relief, without entering the workhouse. For obvious reasons which will be stated in this essay, outdoor relief was the preferred of the two.

The law faced the dilemma of how to provide to the poor without encouraging their dependency of the state. Later referred to as the ‘New Poor Law’, it had different guiding principles to that of past poor laws. The new law stopped providing relief for the able-bodied poor except by offering them employment in the workhouse (indoor relief), purely with the objective of stimulating workers to seek regular employment rather than

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