Law for The Poor

Act was that it applied to rated land not personal or movable wealth, therefore benefiting
commercial and business interests.
Cost
The building of different types of workhouses was expensive. The Workhouse Act of
1772 allowed parishes to combine and apply for a workhouse test, where conditions
were made worse than those outside.
The Act stated that workhouses, poorhouses and houses of correction should be built
for the different types of pauper. However, it was not cost effective to build these
different types of buildings. For this reason parishes such as Bristol combined these
institutions so that the profits paupers made were plunged back into the maintenance of
the system.
Reliance on The Parish
The system's reliance on the parish can be seen as both a strength and a weakness. It
could be argued it made the system more humane and sensitive, but a local crisis such
as a poor harvest could be a great burden on the local poor rate.
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