Poor Law

The Poor Law was the system for the provision of social security in operation in England and the United Kingdom from the 16th century until the establishment of the Welfare State in the 20th century.

The Act of 1601

Acts of 1536, 1572, 1576 and 1597 prescribed relief for the poor on a parish basis. The Act of 1572 made poor relief the subject of local taxation, while the 1576 Act made provision for "setting the poor on work and for avoidance of idleness", including the creation of "houses of correction" for persistent idlers.

Related Topics:
1536 - 1572 - 1576 - 1597 - Parish

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The Poor Law Act 1601 formalised earlier practices. It made provision for a national system, paid for by levying local rates (or property taxes). It made provision

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• to set to work children who were orphaned or whose parents could not maintain them,
• to provide materials to "set the poor on work"
• to offer relief to people who were unable to work — mainly those who were "lame, impotent, old, blind", and
• "the putting out of children to be apprentices".

Relief for poor people might have taken place in the establishment of a parish poorhouse, while able-bodied beggars may have been placed in houses of correction. However, provision for the able-bodied poor in the workhouse, which provided accommodation at the same time as work, was relatively unusual, and most workhouses developed later. Abingdon had a workhouse by 1631. The workhouse in Bristol was founded by private Act of Parliament in 1697, nearly a century after the passage of the Poor Law.

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There was much variation in the application of the law and there was a tendency for the destitute to migrate towards the more generous parishes. This led to the Settlement Act 1662 which allowed relief only to established residents of a parish. The Act was criticised in later years for its effect in distorting the labour market.

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