Welfare records: Claiming Poor Relief
Under the old Poor Law, which had existed from Elizabethan times, people suffering hardship could only obtain relief from their Parish of Settlement. Settlement was gained by various means:
- Birth to parents who were settled in the Parish
- By employment for a full year in the Parish. After about 1800, parishes advised their parishioners "not to hire or engage, or cause to be hired or engaged, any male or female Servant, or any Workman, for a period of more than fifty-one Weeks" so that they would not be able to make claims on the parish in which they were living.
- By renting a tenement valued at £10 per annum (a year)
- By holding Office in the Parish
- By being a bound apprentice to a parishioner
In 1834, the Poor Law Amendment Act was introduced in England to alter the way poor people or paupers were looked after. The Act tried to encourage people to look after themselves, rather than asking for help from the Poor Law Guardians and Overseers. The law said that only the most 'needy' (poorest) people were entitled to receive any help and that this help should be given in the form of entrance to a workhouse or assistance to find employment. The Poor Law Guardians thought that if they only offered people entrance to a workhouse, which was an awful, hard life, they would be encouraged to find employment, rather than asking for poor relief and costing the rate payers extra money.
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