Beneath the Surface: A Country of Two Nations

Page 6 of 11

• 1. A country of two nations
• 2. Optimists and pessimists
• 3. The labouring poor
• 4. Rural and urban poverty
• 5. Official attitudes to the relief of poverty
• 6. Lowest standard of living
• 7. The workhouse
• 8. The Scottish Poor Law
• 9. Charity and self-help
• 10. Conclusion
• 11. Find out more
• Print entire article

Lowest standard of living

Designed to reduce the costs of poor relief, the Act placed the workhouse (provided by a union of parishes) at the centre of provision, with the guiding principle of 'less eligibility' - that workhouse conditions should be worse than the lowest living standards of the independent labourer - as its central tenet. Those entering the workhouse would find life there harsh, monotonous and characterised by the intent of improving the inmate's moral character. It was felt that local resources should be used more effectively and costs would be further reduced as paupers would be deterred by the appearance of the workhouses and knowledge of the harsh treatment of their 'inmates'.

'...paupers would be deterred by the appearance of the workhouses and knowledge of the harsh treatment of their 'inmates'.'

Although the Poor Law Commissioners (later the Poor Law Board) regulated conditions, it was an elected Board of Guardians who managed each union with waged staff to run the workhouse. The Act faced initial hostility, especially in the industrial north in 1837/8, where it was felt to be unsuitable for the patterns of industrial workers' needs, and amongst those in rural areas who felt that they best understood their area and its inhabitants. Radical politicians, such as the Chartists, likened workhouses to 'bastilles' and argued that the Act was an attempt to reduce wages and create a subservient workforce.

These attitudes and the cost of building new workhouses meant that the Act was not fully implemented for some 20 years. Although 'outdoor' relief for the poor was continued, the stigma attached to it and the low level of relief meant that fewer applied for it. Increasingly stringent controls, particularly after 1872, instilled in the poor the sense that they, not the state, were primarily responsible for maintaining themselves.

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Published: 2001-01-01