Poor Relief - Law Commission

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vii Pages Local Government Board’s Poor Law Provisional 168-170 Orders Confirmation (Oxford etc) Act 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c.clxviii) Local Government Board’s (Poor Law) 171-174 Provisional Orders Confirmation (Birmingham, etc) Act 1878 (41 & 42 Vict. c.civ) Local Government Board’s Provisional 175-177 Orders Confirmation (Poor Law) Act 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c.cvi) Local Government Board’s Provisional 178-179 Order Confirmation (Poor Law) (No.7) Act 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c.xciv) Local Government Board’s Provisional 180-181 Order Confirmation (Poor Law) Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c.cxviii)
Introduction THE POOR RELIEF: BACKGROUND NOTE 1. The Acts identified in these notes for repeal are mostly relics of the “Old Poor Law” as it operated throughout England and Wales. By “Old Poor Law” is meant the parish-based poor law relief arrangements that existed before the implementation of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834. The Acts identified in these notes were enacted for the purpose of providing for the needs of the poor, particularly by providing the necessary powers to raise money from the inhabitants of a parish to build a workhouse to contain the poor. 1 The Acts have long ceased to serve any useful purpose and their repeal is proposed on that basis. Similarly obsolete, and also proposed for repeal, are a number of Acts that were passed to amend the operation of the poor law as it applied after the implementation of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834. Background 2. The origin of the Old Poor Law, as well as the origin of the modern law of social welfare and of rating law, can be traced to enactments passed in 1597 and 1601. 2 The 1601 Act, which amended the 1597 Act, obliged each parish in England and Wales to relieve the aged and the helpless, to bring up unprotected children in habits of industry, and to provide work for those capable of it but lacking their usual trade. The Act established the parish as the administrative unit responsible for poor relief, with churchwardens or parish overseers collecting poor-rates from the inhabitants of a parish and then allocating relief, usually in the form of bread, clothing, fuel, the payment of rent, or cash. The poor-rate was originally a form of local income tax, but it gradually evolved into a property tax based on the value of a person’s real estate. A consequence of the 1601 Act was the parish workhouse which appeared around 1650 and became widespread throughout parishes in England and Wales by the 1770s. 1 Although people needing assistance from the parish were generally categorised as “the poor”, poverty was not the only issue. Old age, illness, disability and unemployment were other issues. Moreover, the workhouse was not the only form of relief available from the parish. Assistance often took the form of “out relief” – that is, money, food or medical assistance provided while people continued to live in their own homes. Equally they might have been treated for illness in the workhouse infirmary or in the county lunatic asylum. Children of poor parents were brought up and educated in Poor Law schools and, in due course, apprenticed or placed in service. 2 39 Eliz.1 c.3 (1597); 43 Eliz.1 c.2 (1601). 1
Page 1 and 2: Statute Law Repeals: Consultation P
Page 3 and 4: Selection of repeal candidates 6. C
Page 5 and 6: POOR RELIEF REPEAL PROPOSALS CONTEN
Page 7: vi Pages 53 Geo.3 c.cxxvii (1813) 1
Page 11 and 12: e provided by the local poor rate w
Page 13 and 14: 12. Modern rating law is provided b
Page 15 and 16: (f) the Corporation authorised to m
Page 17 and 18: Consultation 8. HM Treasury, the De
Page 19 and 20: and overseers required to attend me
Page 21 and 22: Extent 7. The provisions proposed f
Page 23 and 24: over poor children until they reach
Page 25 and 26: Reference Extent of repeal or revoc
Page 27 and 28: operating their own small workhouse
Page 29 and 30: of the town; power to compel the id
Page 33 and 34: (o) all charitable gifts given in t
Page 35 and 36: (c) overseers of the poor authorise
Page 37 and 38: Consultation 11. HM Treasury, the D
Page 39 and 40: Green for so long as these annuitie
Page 43 and 44: in 1927 and was converted to use as
Page 45 and 46: 5. The 1767 Act has long been obsol
Page 47 and 48: (e) qualification of the Directors;
Page 51 and 52: (l) rewards for industrious workhou
Page 53 and 54: 9. The 1775 and 1801 Acts have long
Page 55 and 56: hire out poor inmates to bring in t
Page 57 and 58: competent to give evidence; constru
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Reference Extent of repeal or revoc
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(o) rewards for industrious workers
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(f) money raised by poor rates to b
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Extent 8. The provisions proposed f
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treasurer, clerk and other officers
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income and other support previously
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convene vestry meetings; election o
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6. The 1791 Act has long been obsol
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security of the poor rates and of b
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(k) Charitable bequests for the poo
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(j) the existing workhouse to be ve
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despatch the drunken, idle or disor
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Shropshire (later known as Cross Ho
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(d) recent purchase of land by the
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(h) provision to ensure that no Dir
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(d) Directors and Acting Guardians
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Consultation 9. HM Treasury, the De
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(d) inhabitants of parish to appoin
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orrowed to be used for furnishing t
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from funds provided by central gove
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(d) all byelaws made under the auth
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8. A workhouse was built in 1767 in
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Committees; Directors to meet their
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7. Accordingly the 1813 Act is obso
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(d) power to rectify errors in any
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(b) establishment of a corporation
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the House of Industry in the same p
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officers as if they were overseers;
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let out for employment as servants
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Justices of the Peace to act on the
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from funds provided by central gove
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(b) the poor in the house of indust
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industry, to furnish it and to keep
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Consultation 9. HM Treasury, the De
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acting if not duly qualified; Justi
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(s) churchwardens and overseers and
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(k) penalty for stealing or receivi
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7. Accordingly the 1833 Act is obso
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(e) provisions about summonses and
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5. Section 1 of the 1868 Act set ou
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Tunstead and Happing Incorporated H
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Ulverstone Union (Parish of Dalton)
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which have already been repealed. I
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Parish of Boldre Order 10. This Ord
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Consultation 10. HM Treasury, the D
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Parish of St Mary Abbotts, Kensingt
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Parish of St James, Westminster Ord
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Poor Relief - Law Commission

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