Poor relief

In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of helping the poor. Alongside ever-changing attitudes towards poverty, many methods have been attempted to answer these questions. Since the early 16th century legislation on poverty enacted by the English Parliament, poor relief has developed from being little more than a systematic means of punishment into a complex system of government-funded support and protection, especially following the creation in the 1940s of the welfare state.

Tudor era

In the late 15th century, parliament took action on the growing problem of poverty, focussing on punishing people for being "vagabonds" and for begging. In 1495, during the reign of King Henry VII, Parliament enacted the Vagabond Act. This provided for officers of the law to arrest and hold "all such vagabonds, idle and suspect persons living suspiciously and them so taken to set in stocks, there to remain three nights and to have none other sustenance but bread and water; and after the said three days and three nights, to be had out and set at large and to be commanded to avoid the town." Unfortunately, as historian Mark Rathbone has discussed in his article "Vagabond!", this Act of Parliament relied on a very loose definition of what was a vagabond and did not make any distinctions between those who were simply unemployed and looking for employment and those who chose to live the life of a vagabond. In addition, the Act failed to recognize the impotent poor, those who could not provide for themselves. These included the sick, the elderly, and the disabled. This neglect to define a vagabond precisely would hinder the effectiveness of the Vagabond Act for years to come.