Poor Law Reform of 1834 History of Welfare

Poor Law Reform of 1834 History of Welfare Development in UK

• Royal Commission • In 1832, severe opposition to the poor law practice, the rising flood of pauperism, and the heavy increase in the poor-tax burden led to the appointment of a “Royal Commission for Inquiring into the Administration and Practical Operation of the Poor Laws. ” • Its chairman became Professor Nassau W. Senior, a noted economist, and its secretary Edwin Chadwick, a brilliant young lawyer who had studied under Jeremy Bentham. • The commission undertook an extensive two year survey of poor law administration in every county of England rendered its report in 1834.

• Royal Commission Report • The report contained Six main recommendations. 1. To abolish partial relief as provided under the Speenhamland system 2. To place all able-bodied applicants for relief in the workhouse 3. To grant outdoor relief only to the sick, the old, the invalid, and widows with young children 4. To coordinate the administration of relief of several parishes into a “poor law union” 5. To make the conditions of poor relief recipients less desirable than those of the lowest paid worker in the community (principle of “less eligibility”) 6. To establish a central board of control to be appointed by the king.

• New Poor Law • These recommendations were enacted August 14, 1834, in a statute known in England for one hundred years as the New Poor Law. • Poor Law unions were formed by neighboring parishes. • They were administered by a board of guardians, composed of representatives of each parish with a paid staff, and managed a common workhouse and almshouse. • To develop a uniform poor law policy, a Permanent Royal Poor Law Commission was appointed with three commissioners; Edwin Chadwick was its first secretary. • Assistant Commissioners visited poor law unions, attended meetings of the boards of guardians and inspected workhouses and almshouses.

• Edwin Chadwick was an energetic, aggressive reformer, not content with the cautious actions of the commissioners. • Edwin Chadwick became General commissioner of the Poor and supervised investigations into the causes of poverty and the means of effective social reform. • Earlier surveys made by the poor law commissioners had revealed that widespread prevalence of disease among the lower classes was a major cause of destitution. • Disease among the poor was caused mainly by unhealthy housing and living conditions and by malnutrition.

• In urban slums , people lived in overcrowded quarters, and often adolescents and children of both sexes slept in one bed. • This led to promiscuity, quarrels, delinquency, immorality and rapid spread of contagious diseases. • Often seven to ten used one sleeping room, or ; lived in damp, dark cellars without any ventilation. • There were usually no outside toilets and no sewers in the streets, Refuse was thrown into the public gutter, and there existed no scavenger service or regular street cleaning although this was occasionally done by inmates of the workhouse.

• On the initiative of Edwin Chadwick, the poor law board brought these conditions to the attention of parliament. • Chadwick thus became the first pioneer of public hygiene. • He developed a program of protection against contagious disease by sanitary provisions for water systems, sewage, and drainage. • At this insistence, free public vaccination against cholera, typhus and smallpox was introduced in 1840.

• Public Health Act of 1848 • The Public Health Act of August 31, 1848, established a General Board of Health, and Edwin Chadwick served as one of its members. • Despite his devoted service, Edwin Chadwick again found severe opposition. After six years he was dismissed. • Florence Nightingale • But less than a decade later, Florence Nightingale, denouncing the miserable status of the army medical service, aroused public opinion and started single handed a reform of nursing, hospitals and medical practice.

• Source: Book title “Introduction to Social Welfare” Author: Walter A. Friedlander Robert Z. Apte