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Reforming the Poor Law - Coggle Diagram
Reforming the Poor Law
Royal Commission of Enquiry 1832
Royal Commission of Enquiry
-feb 1832 Whigs set up a royal commission of enquiry into the operation of the Poor Laws
-1st survey of its kind
Weaknesses
-about 10% of parishes replied
-no compulsion to reply
-immense amount of info meant it was difficult to analyse
-took 2 years to compile data and write the report
-questions were skewed in order to elicit the answers that were required
-open to interpretation
-many interviews were similarly skewed
-any challenge to the conclusions drawn from the 'evidence' that filled 9 volumes would be very time consuming and very difficult
-seen as too radical by the govt
-independent from parliament, not at a national scale
Strengths:
-main recommendations of the report came with law within a year
-survey was the first of its kind
-clear focus, how the Poor Law worked and how to reform it
-independent of parliament
What it did?
-commissioners made 3 questionnaires
-2 sent to the rural parishes and the 3rd was sent to the urban parishes
-10% of parishes replied
-assistant commissioners visited parishes and spoke to paupers and attended meetings
-3000 parishes were visited (1/5 of all parishes)
-info collected was published by the commissioners
Recommendations
-seperate workhouses for aged and infirm, children, able-bodied women and men
-parishes to form unions to provide workhouses
-outdoor relief to stop, less eligibility workhouses
-new central authority established with powers to make and enforce regulations concerning the workhouse system
Aims
-reduce the cost of providing relief
-ensure only the destitute received relief
-provide a national system of poor relief
Aims of Poor Law Policy 1834
Transfer
-transfer unemployed people from rural areas to urban areas
-urban areas had more employment
-this added to overcrowding
-put pressure on towns and cities
Protection of ratepayers
-protect urban rate payers from the sudden surge of demand of relief from rural migrants
Settlement Laws
-Poor Rates would be kept low
-rates would not fall disproportionately on towns if the settlement laws were enforced
-only receive relief in town you were born in
-lots of births not recorded so this system was flawed
Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
Settlement Laws
-tried to fairly spread the cost of urban and rural parishes
-1840- 40,000 paupers were removed from the parish in which they were living and claiming relief, back to their where they were born or where they married
-costly
-Justice of Peace decided where people were to claim residency and relief
Poor Law Commission
Outdoor Relief
-the commission tried to ban outdoor relief for the able-bodied poor, wanting them to go into workhouses instead
-1830s, commission started issuing orders to unions in the rural south
1844 General Outdoor Relief Prohibitory Order
-aimed to end the distribution of outdoor relief
-applied to all unions
-forbade outdoor relief for the able-bodied poor
What could they do?
-issue directives
-draw up regulations
-monitor regulation implementation
-set dietaries for workhouses
-transfer rural poor to urban areas to gain employment
-protect urban ratepayers from sudden surge of demand from rural migrants
Problems
-seperate from parliament
-no spokesperson to defend itself
What did it say?
-central authority should be set up to supervise, implement and regulate the administration of the Poor Law (Poor Law Commissioners)
-parishes grouped together to form Poor Law unions
-each union to have a workhouse where inmates lived in bad conditions
-outdoor relief was discouraged but not abolished
-Workhouse Test- anyone who wanted relief must enter the workhouse
-deterrent workhouses to deter people from being paupers, encouraging them to work
Edwin Chadwick Impact on the Poor Laws
Beneficial
-driving force behind the Act
-skilled in this area
-determined to make the act work
-unfazed by the media
-skilled investigator and report writer
-wrote the final Royal Commission Report with Nassau
-commercial and industrial classes were helped as it meant that they no longer had to pay high rates
Harmful
-went behind the backs of the commissioners
-he wanted his views in the report, meaning he skewed the report
-he wasn't specific in his report
-campaigns against him
-influenced by utilitarianism (Bentham)
-wanted to make relief a deterrent, making conditions horrific
-his recommendations weren't specific as he expected to be the one responsible for implementing the act
-gained enemies in parliament, working class, and the press
Parliamentary Reform Act 1832
-1 adult male out of 7 had to vote in general elections
-reorganised constituencies to give the North and Midlands greater representation