English Poor Laws

As poor law, the statutory provisions for the support of the poor in England are usually referred to, the basis of which has laid in 1601 Elizabeth I by the decision taken by their poor law. The Poor Law was in different forms and manifestations until the emergence of the welfare state at the beginning of the 20th century in power. Today, it is one of the first social policy interventions by the state at all, and thus counted as one of the starting points of today's support systems. Once in the 16th century individual communities lined up rules on the treatment of the poor, the Poor Law was the basis for a nationally uniform system of support for people in need in England.

Principles ( 17th and 18th centuries )

The poor law guaranteed every poor the right to support from the community. Every person should be protected from extreme necessity. The Poor Law was directed equally to persons who were not able to gainful employment ( impotent poor ), those unable to find work ( able bodied ), and persons who refused to take up work ( vagrants ).

Most was guaranteed in the form of natural history, in rare cases, by money this support ( poor relief ). To move arms to the inclusion of labor, public support should be limited to a minimum and clearly be lower than the income of the poorest laborer. To finance the aid of the communities were allowed to levy taxes arms.

At the same time put the arms right to massive deterrent consequences to stop people from applying for poor relief from and for work. The application of those seeking help were tried in open court in front of the volunteer guardians ( guardians ). Recognized arms were out in public directories, their names were struck at church walls, since in 1697 they had to wear ( for pauper = poor ) an embroidered onto clothing P. Recognised need the disenfranchised.

A new law ( settlement act) the country of origin principle was introduced in 1662 in the Poor Law. It did support only for the people before who were born in the community, were married or formed.

With the beginning of the 18th century, the poor were in which spreading workhouses ( workhouses ) instructed to test their willingness to work. In 1776 there were in England and Wales in 1912 workhouses, in which about 100,000 people were living. The workhouses were also a gathering point for people with physical or mental illness, with mental or physical disabilities and for the elderly and orphans.

The New Poor Law (1834 )

The Elizabethan Poor Law held the developments of the 19th century was not. The beginning of industrialization, the onset of population growth and the influx into the cities, with costs of poor relief rise and made the system ineffective. Also, the origin principle has been criticized because it made the labor market more inflexible.

1834 because of the New Poor Law was adopted which had essentially cost reductions to the target. The New Poor Law provided for the compulsory admission to workhouses and deteriorated at the same time the conditions there clearly. The workhouses were to places that resembled prisons. Critics such as Friedrich Engels assessed the conditions in these workhouses so destructive that they assumed, their only purpose of which is to prevent poor people from seeking government support.

Common criticisms of workers, trade unions, politicians and the church led to changes of the new Poor Law, which in the workhouses facilitated the harsh conditions in part and improved control.

The end of the Poor Law

With the development of new social policy, such as the establishment of pension and accident insurance in the years 1906-1914, the Poor Law was unimportant. Systems have also been introduced between the world wars in England, which provided support regardless of the Poor Law and its stigmatizing regulations. English workhouses were officially banned in 1929. The last vestiges of the Poor Law was abolished in 1948.

Impact of Poor Law

England was the first country to develop a comprehensive approach and unified, national arms legislation. English settlers brought with them the ideas of the Poor Law in the New World, however in a world characterized by Calvinism, even stricter form. To arms help the seekers of immigrants were not only publicly named, but also to endure some whipped and auctioned to interested parties (auction system). After rising immigration numbers in the middle of the 19th century workhouses were built in the eastern United States.

The idea of deterrence in the administration of poor relief spread in continental Europe quickly. In Germany the first working houses were built in the early 17th century. Even in the newly founded German Empire arms support was linked to the condition to make its work force.