Poor rate

In England and Wales the poor rate was a tax on property levied in each parish, which was used to provide poor relief. It was collected under both the Old Poor Law and the New Poor Law. It was absorbed into 'general rate' local taxation in the 1920s, and has continuity with the currently existing Council Tax.

Introduction

The Poor Relief Act 1601 consolidated earlier poor relief legislation and introduced a system of rating property. The introduction of the poor rate required the authorities, known as a vestry, in each parish to meet once a year to set the poor rate and to appoint an overseer of the poor to collect the rate. The justices of the peace at the quarter sessions had a role in checking the accounts of the poor rate.

Reform

The system of rating was subject to reform, such as excluding property outside of the parish a rate was paid. Because the poor rate was collected and spent locally within a single parish the notion of settlement was confirmed by the Poor Relief Act 1662 to exclude the poor from other parishes.

Rate

Rate may refer to:

Science and finance

Human growth

Other uses

Ratež

Ratež (pronounced [ˈɾaːtɛʃ]) is a settlement in the hills east of Novo Mesto in southeastern Slovenia. The area is part of the traditional region of Lower Carniola and is now included in the Southeast Slovenia Statistical Region.

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Rate (mathematics)

In mathematics, a rate is the ratio between two related quantities Often it is a rate of change. If the unit or quantity in respect of which something is changing is not specified, usually the rate is per unit of time. However, a rate of change can be specified per unit of time, or per unit of length or mass or another quantity. The most common type of rate is "per unit of time", such as speed, heart rate and flux. Ratios that have a non-time denominator include exchange rates, literacy rates and electric field (in volts/meter).

In describing the units of a rate, the word "per" is used to separate the units of the two measurements used to calculate the rate (for example a heart rate is expressed "beats per minute"). A rate defined using two numbers of the same units (such as tax rates) or counts (such as literacy rate) will result in a dimensionless quantity, which can be expressed as a percentage (for example, the global literacy rate in 1998 was 80%) or fraction or as a multiple.