Social Welfare

Activities from
Charity to
Comprehensive
Social Security
Program in
England

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Assistant Professor,
Merit: 1721
Department of Social Work
ID: B190403055 Jagannath University, Dhaka
Social Work Department miftahulbari201@yahoo.com
15th Batch
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ln medieval England, as elsewhere, since the main motive for

almsgiving was the salvation of the donor's soul, there was
usually little concern for the human being who received the
charity. Begınning in the fourteenth Century, however, some
distinction was made between two classes of the poor: the
able-bodied poor, who could earn their living, and the
impotent poor, who were unable to work-the blind, the lame,
the aged, the sick, young children, and pregnant women. The
English church devoted from one-fourth to one-third of the
tithes and offerings collected from its parishioners to the care
of the poor. Whereas charity could flourish between equals,
mercy denoted transactions between the strong and the weak,
the rich and the poor, even the living and the dead. In the
fifteenth century more than a thousand monasteries, convents,
hospitals and abbeys provided shelter, clothes, food, and alms
for the poor and for wandering beggars. Poor relief, however,
was not inspired solely by the religious motives of charity and
mercy, and some relief was financed by rates and taxes rather
than by voluntary contributions. Worldly, practical, and
humane reasons lay behind attempts to relieve poverty.
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In the teachings of the Christian churches, charity was a
religious emotion, a divine fire that destroyed the love of
self to make room for the love of God and neighbors. Closely
related to charity or caritas was mercy. According to the
vision of the Last Judgment in chapter 25 of the Gospel of St.
Matthew, salvation depended absolutely on willingness to
be merciful to the poor, as if each one were Christ himself. A
good Christian would strive at once to imitate Christ and to
find him in deprived and afflicted people and in wanderers,
pilgrims, galley slaves, and the inmates of jails.
In 1349, Edward III ordered that able-
bodied laborers without means must
accept employment from any master
willing to hire them and forbade them
to leave their parish. Citizens were not
allowed to give alms to able-bodied
beggars. Edward's Statute of Laborers
was designed to prevent vagrancy and
begging and to force the rural worker to
stay on the land through cruel
punishments such as being put into the
stocks, whipped, branded, mutilated by
cutting off the ears and the nose,
condemned to the galleys, or even Edward III
hanged.
The origins of the English Poor Law system can be traced back to
late medieval statutes dealing with beggars and vagrancy, but it
was only during the Tudor period that the Poor Law system was
codified. Before the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the
Tudor Reformation,
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monasteries had been the primary source of poor relief, but

their dissolution resulted in poor relief moving from a
largely voluntary basis to a compulsory tax that was
collected at a parish level. Early legislation was concerned
with vagrants and making the able-bodied work, especially
while labour was in short.

The first constructive measure taken by Henry VIII

government for relief of the poor was the
statute of Henry VIII in 1531. It provided that
mayors and justices of the peace should
investigate applications of the aged and
paupers unable to work who were
maintained by the parish. They were to be
registered and licensed to beg in an assigned
area. This law was the beginning of a
recognition of public responsibility for the
poor, but it still provided for brutal
punishment of unregistered beggars and
vagrants. The Re foramen brought a
fundamental change in the system of
charities and relief for the poor in England.
The problem was made worse because during the English
Reformation, Henry VIII severed the ecclesiastical governance of his
kingdoms of England and Ireland and made himself the Supreme
Head of the Church of England. This involved the Dissolution of the
Monasteries in England and Wales: the assets of hundreds of rich
religious institutions, including their great estates, were taken by the
Crown. This had a devastating impact on poor relief.
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According to the historian Paul Slack, prior to the Dissolution "it has
been estimated that monasteries alone provided 6,500 pounds a
year in alms before 1537 [equivalent to £3,800,000 in 2019; and
that sum was not made good by private benefactions until after
1580." In addition to the closing of the monasteries, most hospitals
(which in the 16th century were generally almshouses rather than
medical institutions) were also closed, as they "had come to be
seen as special types of religious houses".

The parish had to maintain the impotent poor out of church

collections. Able-bodied beggars were forced to work, and
idle children from five to fourteen years of age were taken
away from their parents and indentured. In 1562 the Statute
of Artificers was issued to regulate wages and hours of labor
and to increase the skill of artisans by an apprentice system.
It required that vagrants and vagabonds be put to hard labor
and that unemployed beggars between twelve and sixty
years of age be hired out as servants.
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The Elizabeth an Poor Law of 1601

The Poor Law 1601 sought to consolidate all previous legislative
provisions for the relief of 'the poor'. The Poor Law made it
compulsory for parishes to levy a 'poor rate' to fund financial
support ('public assistance') for those who could not work.
Assistance depended on the residential qualification of living locally
(leading Poor Law guardians to repatriate paupers elsewhere).
The role of 'overseer' was established by the
Act. There were two in each parish to
administer relief and collect poor rates from
property owners. 'Outdoor' and 'indoor' relief
was available.
Outdoor relief was designed to support people
in the community and took the form of financial
support or non-monetary relief in the form of
food and clothing. Indoor relief included taking
'the poor' to local almshouses, admitting 'the
mentally ill' to hospitals and sending orphans to
orphanages.

There was a distinction between the 'impotent' poor (the lame,

blind, etc) and the 'idle poor', who were likely to be placed in
houses of correction (later workhouses).
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(1) The able-bodied poor were called

"sturdy beggars" and were forced to
work in the house of correction or
workhouse. Citizens were forbidden
to give them alms and pauper who
arrived from other parishes were
returned to the place where they had
last dwelt for a year. A beggar or
valiant vagabond" who refused to
work in the house of correction was
put in the stocks or in jail.

(2) The impotent poor were people unable to

work-the sick, the old, the blind, the deaf-
mute, the lame, the demented, and mothers
with young children they were to be placed in
the almshouse where they were to help
within the limits of their capacities. If the
impotent poor had a place to live and it
seemed less expensive to maintain them
there, the overseers of the p0or could grant
them "outdoor relief," usually "in kind,"
sending food, clothes, and fuel to their
homes.
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(3) Dependent children were orphans, foundlings, and children who

had been deserted by their parents or whose parents were so poor that
they could not support them. These children were to be placed out to
any citizen who was willing to take them without a charge. If no such
“free home" was available, the child was to be given to the lowest
bidder. Children eight years and older able to do some domestic and
other work were indentured with a townsman. Boys were taught the
trade of their master and had to serve until their twenty-fourth
birthday. Girls were brought up as domestic servants and remained in
indenture until they were twenty-one years of age or married.
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The Settlement Act of 1662:

Because each parish was responsible tor the maintenance of its
poor, it Wanted to protect itself against an additional burden
created by poor persons moving in from other communities. The
gentry, for their part, were anxious to retain rural laborers on the
land. Following the pressure of both the parishes and the century,
Charles II enacted the Laws of Settlement in 1662. It empowered
the justices of the peace to return to their former residence any
newcomers who, in the opinion of the overseers of the poor, might
at some future date become a public charge. The overseers had to
investigate within forty days after arrival. If newcomers were able to
rent property for ten pounds sterling a year or to deposit this sum,
they were exempted from the threat of removal. In 1795 the Act of
1662 was amended so that newcomers could not be sent back to
their former residences until they had actually applied for relief.
Even 50 vagabonds, "disorderly persons," and unmarried pregnant
women could still be forcibly expelled immediately.
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In the early 19th century most of the parishes grew too poor to
take care of the ever-increasing amount of the poor. The British
society faced a serious social problem. Something was to be done,
and in 1834 the old Poor Law was amended. 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 it he
Administration and Practical Operation of the Poor Laws.”
The condition of a pauper in a workhouse was to be “less eligible”
than that of the least prosperous workers outside. In the sinister
language of the Poor Law Commission of 1834, the able-bodied
inmate must be “subjected to such courses of labour and discipline
as will repel the indolent and vicious”. At a time when millions of
people were on the verge of starvation, this object could only be
achieved by making the workhouse the home of meanness and
cruelty. Families were divided, food was poor and scanty and the
tasks imposed were hard and boring, oakum picking and stone
breaking being among the most common.
Poor taxes were used as subsidies to farmers, landlords,
storekeepers, and manufacturers. ‘The report contained six main
recommendations.
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‘To abolish partial relief as provided under the

Speenhamland system.

To place all able-bodied applicants for relief in the

workhouse

To grant outdoor relief only to the sick, the old,

the invalid, and widows with young children

To coordinate the administration of relief of

several parishes into a “poor law union

To make the conditions of poor relief recipients less

desirable than those of the lowest paid worker in
the community (principle of “less eligibility”)

To establish a central board of control to be appointed by

the king.
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CHILD LABOR AND FACTORY

LEGISLATION:
Child labour was not an invention of the Industrial Revolution.
Poor children have always started work as soon as their
parents could find employment for them. But in much of pre-
industrial Britain, there simply was not very much work
available for children. This changed with industrialisation. The
new factories and mines were hungry for workers and
required the execution of simple tasks that could easily be
performed by children. The result was a surge in child labour
– presenting a new kind of problem that Victorian society had
to tackle.
The development of the textile mills in the nineteenth century
offered an unprecedented-opportunity to use the children of
paupers. They were offered to textile manufacturers as cheap
labor. The fate of these children became deplorable, Some
were as young as four years of age, and there was no legal
limitation of their working hours.
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In industrial areas, children started work on average

at eight and a half years old. Most of these young
workers entered the factories as piecers, standing at
the spinning machines repairing breaks in the
thread. A few started as scavengers, crawling
beneath the machinery to clear it of dirt, dust or
anything else that might disturb the mechanism. In
the mines, children usually started by minding the
trap doors, picking out coals at the pit mouth, or by
carrying picks for the miners.
therefore, considerable variety in the age at which
children started work, with those in the industrial
districts typically starting work the youngest. All
children laboured under the same disadvantages,
though, working for very low pay, performing work
that was dirty and dangerous, and usually working
long hours as well.
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:
• The first legislation, passed in 1802, was a very mild act to
prevent some of the worst abuses connected with the
employment of pauper children. It was followed by the
Cotton Factories Regulation Act of 1819 which forbade the
employment of children under nine in cotton factories and
limited the hours of those between nine and sixteen to 13.
As no machinery was ever provided for the enforcement of
this Act it remained a dead letter.
• It was not till 1833, after the passing of the Reform Bill and
under pressure of the workers that an effective Act was
passed. This prohibited the employment of children under
nine except in silk factories, limited the hours of older
children and provided a number of inspectors to see that
these restrictions were carried out.
• Finally in 1847 the Ten Hours’ Bill limited the hours of
women and young people, and, in practice, secured a ten
hour day for most of the men, since it proved unprofitable
to keep the factories open for them alone. This result was
not achieved for some years, however, during which the
employers tried every conceivable evasion and device short
of flat defiance of the provision of the Act
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The Charity Organization Society:

The genesis of the Charity Organization Society (COS)
movement had its roots in urbanization and the loss of
“community” and mutual aid prevalent in rural areas
of Western countries. By their very nature, urban areas
fostered industrial accidents, diseases, unemployment,
poverty, family breakdown and other social and
economic problems. When afflicted by unemployment,
sickness, old age or a physical disability, individuals and
families without relatives or financial resources had
few options: apply for public relief, appeal to private
charities or beg help from strangers.
The Poor Law Reform of 1834 did not bridge the
widening gulf between the manufacturers and mill
owners and the steadily increasing masses of industrial
workers. Philanthropists became concerned with
saving either individuals whom they personally knew
or certain groups of the poor, such as the children and
the blind, lame, or crippled, from the degradation and
cruel treatment of the mixed almshouse. In London,
during several business crises in the 1860s, almost all
churches and about one hundred charitable agencies
distributed money, food, clothes, and fuel tickets-to
the poor.
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In larger districts the direction of the work of these
volunteers was entrusted to a paid agent of the
Charity Organization Society. The Society was
opposed to an extension of public poor relief and
supported the tendency among its members to
reduce government expenditures for the poor. It did
encourage the growth of private charities, the giving
of donations and bequests in their behalf, and the
initiative .
The Charity Organization Society developed links
with like-minded societies and helped to establish
similar agencies in different parts of Britain. Its
emphasis on organization and upon investigation,
when linked to notions such as the deserving and
undeserving poor, and the significance of individual
responsibility.
It developed cooperation between poor relief and
private charities, succeeded in eliminating some
fraudulent setups, prevented duplication of support,
and strengthened the concept of rehabilitation of
the poor. It formed the basis for casework as
individual aid, on the one hand, and for community
organization, on the other.
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THE POOR LAW COMMISSION OF 1905:

In December 1905, the Royal Commission on the Poor Law and
the Unemployed was set up to review the system of poor
relief provision and consider alternative mechanisms to tackle
issues relating to unemployment. The commission was also
asked to consider whether changes needed to be made to the
Poor Laws. Commissioners included former guardians, Poor
Law officials and clergymen.
It was not possible to put entire communities into the
workhouse, as required by the Poor Law of 1834. Some mining
towns applied to Parliament for aid. Private charities found
themselves unable to support tens of thousands of jobless
families for unlimited periods, and national emergency funds
had to be appropriated.
The. Liberal Party in 1905 promised a reform of the poor laws
and aid to the unemployed. A “Royal Commission on the Poor
Laws and Relief of Distress,” with Lord George Hamilton as
chairman, was. appointed. There were fundamental
differences of opinion ‘between the majorit and minority of
the commission. The majority wanted a mild reform of the old
poor law and advocated close cooperation with private
charities. The minority demanded the abolition of the poor
law. The Poor Law Commission did agree on the following
recommendations.
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Poor law unions and boards of guardians should be

replaced by county councils, reducing the number
of local relief administrations by three quarters.

The punitive character of poor relief should be

abolished in favor of a humane public assistance
program.

Mixed almshouses should be abolished: Mentally

deficient and mentally ill patients should be treated in
hospitals, and children placed 3 in foster homes or
residential schools.

National pensions for the aged, free hospital

treatment for the poor, gratuitous public employment
services, and a program of social insurance with
unemployment and invalidity benefits should be
introduced.
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:
Throughout World War Two 1939-1945, Britain was run
by a Government which included Labour, Conservative
and Liberal politicians. Winston Churchill became Prime
Minister and led the British Government for most of the
war. The Government became much more involved in
people's lives during the war. Far from being resented,
most people welcomed this Government intervention
and wanted it to go further. The Government was seen
to be taking an active interest in providing for the
welfare of the British people. The war greatly affected
how people in Britain lived their lives.
The war demand increased efforts for the treatment of
tuberculosis, cancer, and venereal diseases. Important
changes were made in the coordination of hospital
facilities. Modern health treatment centers,
consultation services, and rehabilitation clinics were set
up. An extension of medical research and an expanded
program. for training young physicians were
undertaken.
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Serious problems were created in England during
World War II by the necessity of evacuating hundreds
of thousands of women, children, and the old, infirm,
and sick from the large cities. The population in
England found it hard to understand the many
regulations regarding air raid protection, rationing,
shelters, war damage compensation, family
allowances for wives and children of men in the
armed forces, rent control, taxes, and evacuation
schedules, so that reliable information became
necessary. The bureaus gave free advice on war-
related questions, gave legal opinion, and issued
forms for applications. The Citizens’ Advice Bureaus
did not dispense assistance but referred applicants for
material help to social agencies. Their staff consisted
of trained social workers, lawyers, administrative
officials, and volunteers borrowed from both public
and voluntary social agencies. The services of the
Citizens’ Advice Bureaus proved so valuable that a
large number are still in existence.
 Introduction To Social Welfare - Walter A. Friedlander.
 British Library – Website
 The Health Organization UK – Website
 Encyclopedia.com – Website
 The Poor Law.org - Webpage
Thank
You