1 авг 1834 г. - Poor Law Amendment Act

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Reasons for change:
- poor relief cost was high
- poor Law reform intended to bring with it much tighter social discipline (there had been a lot of popular unrest - Reform Bill Crisis)
- fewer paupers paid to do nothing - more people driven to work
- Poor Law guardians and Poor Law commissioners body (to guide the guardians) would be created and parishes would group into Poor Law Unions which would be cheaper and more effective
- guidelines would be introduced concerning workhouses - separate accommodation for different categories (men, women, children, the sick)
- pauper children would be educated and found positions as apprentices
- poor rates would be used now to fund workhouses (would be less costly as people don't want to end up there)
- shelter would be provided for those roaming the country looking for work - could stay short term in a workhouse (intentionally not pleasant so they weren't attractive to people)
- prevents suffering in parishes which hadn't provided adequate relief
- more cost effective and rational to treat the country as a whole


A failure of the Poor Law was the unrest caused by the workhouses. They were increasingly unpopular in industrial areas as they were more vulnerable to fluctuations in trade - factories would sometimes have to lay off their workers who would end up in workhouses. Working class resentment turned to unrest (The Chartist movement). For the poor it was a choice between the workhouse or starvation. Rumours went round the working class that the authorities wanted to kill off the poor by poisoning/maltreating them in the new workhouses.

As well as opposition from the working class to the Poor Laws, there was opposition from the Old Tories ('Tory Radicals') who resented the treatment of the working class. Many rich landowners had earned the loyalty of many from the lower orders for their charitable work and responsibility they took for looking after the poor of a village - didn't want this relationship to be underminded).

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