Poor relief in England

Common card · No. 374203

In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty, particularly before the Liberal welfare reforms beginning in 1906. Beginning in 1551, the Parliaments of England and of Great Britain and the United Kingdom made legal provision for government and ecclesiastical funds to be used to alleviate extreme poverty. The Poor Relief Act 1601 established the system that would operate without major changes until the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, which reorganized the system, aiming to curb abuses and cut overall spending on relief. Beginning in the late 19th century, changing attitudes to poverty and the widening of the franchise to include at first some and then all working-class people through a series of Representation of the People Acts led to the development of the first predecessors of the modern welfare state. Between 1906 and 1914, the Liberal Party created a suite of basic welfare programs that reduced dependence on the Poor Law system...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain