The New Poor Law and the opposition to it

Overview

Principle of less eligibility, workhouse test and two leaders of the anti-Poor Law movement.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What system of poor relief did the Act of 1834 replace?

   Model answer

   The old parish-based system under the Elizabethan poor law, in which overseers relieved the poor in their own homes, often supplementing wages from the rates.

2. 2

   What was the main criticism made of the old poor law by the royal commission?

   Model answer

   That subsidising wages from the rates encouraged low pay, idleness and early marriage, and that the burden on ratepayers was rising uncontrollably.

3. 3

   Define the principle of less eligibility.

   Model answer

   The condition of the relieved pauper must be less desirable than that of the lowest-paid independent labourer, so that no one would choose relief over work.

4. 4

   Define the workhouse test.

   Model answer

   The rule that relief for the able-bodied should be offered only inside the workhouse, so that anyone who refused it was assumed not to need it.

5. 5

   How was the New Poor Law administered?

   Model answer

   Parishes were grouped into unions with an elected board of guardians and a shared workhouse, all supervised by a central Poor Law Commission with power to issue binding orders.

6. 6

   Why was the Poor Law Commission so unpopular?

   Model answer

   Three unelected commissioners at Somerset House could override local decisions, which offended both ratepayers and reformers as an unaccountable central despotism.

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