Causes of 19th century Poverty in Britain

1. Causes of Poverty c.1900

2. Involuntary and Voluntary Poor
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Involuntary Poor
Sick, elderly – largely given poor relief in alms houses.
Voluntary Poor
Population growth and large families combined with low wages
and high price of bread due to the Corn Laws (repealed 1846)
Unemployed, including those put out of work by technological
advances.
These were either given relief in workhouses or, more
commonly, they were given outdoor relief, as during times of
high unemployment there wasn’t room in the workhouses for all
the poor. The number of poor increased in the early C19, partly
due to the industrial revolution, and partly due to the end of the
Napoleonic wars in 1815.

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1834 New Poor Law
Poor relief, both indoor and outdoor, was paid for by the rate
payers in each parish. By 1834 there was opposition amongst
middle-class rate payers to the high cost of poor relief.
Hence a new law was imposed, introducing the principle of
‘less eligibility’ – all involuntary poor had to receive relief in a
workhouse where conditions had to be worse than those of the
poorest workers outside the workhouse.
In workhouses, the sexes were segregated, work was hard, life
was tough and discipline was harsh. Conditions did vary,
though, depending on the humanity of the overseers of the
workhouses.

4. 
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1900
Involuntary poor still received relief in almshouses.
Most voluntary poor still received relief in workhouses. Although conditions in
these had improved since the 1830’s, there was still segregation, and many
poor people wished to live in miserable conditions rather than apply for
workhouse relief and have their family life destroyed.
Leave 5 lines. Add from bottom of p.8 of OCR textbook.
The trade cycle of boom (prosperity) and bust (depression) made life
increasingly hard for the poor. By 1900, Britain was no longer the ‘workshop of
the world’, and the economies of the USA, Germany and Japan had overtaken
the British economy. British manufacturers were finding it harder to sell their
goods abroad as other countries industrialized and competed with Britain.
Leave 5 lines. Add from top of p.9 of OCR textbook.
In a depression, hundreds of thousands of workers were thrown out of work,
and there was a high death rate due to poor nutrition, as well as rioting.

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Nothing was done to improve the life of the poor because of the
prevailing Victorian belief in ‘self-help’ and ‘laissez-faire’, and because
of the ignorance of the ruling classes.
Self-help: The government believed that it was up to poor people to
help themselves out of poverty and find work themselves, ignoring the
fact that there was no work available.
Laissez-faire: The government also believed that it did not have the
duty to intervene into the economy and deal with unemployment. It was
not the government’s job to provide for the poor. Thus there was no
welfare system, no benefits or dole money for the unemployed, and no
pensions.
The ruling classes in parliament also did nothing about the problem of
paupers because of their ignorance of it. The rich never went into
working-class districts and had no idea of the scale of the problem.

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Nothing was done about the unfair distribution of wealth. 90% of the country’s
wealth was in the hands of the richest 10% of the people. Taxation was low.
The Upper and middle classes, and some skilled workers, lived affluent lives.
In contrast, most working people’s lives fluctuated between times of relative
prosperity when they could afford housing, clothing and food, and times of
abject misery if they became unemployed.
At the bottom of society were hundreds of thousands of people whose lives
were a constant struggle. These were the unskilled labourers on very low
wages who lived in the worst of the slums of the industrial towns. Many were
casual labourers like dockers or those who worked in the building trade. Life
was cheap and life expectancy was low. Sanitation was non-existent and
disease was rife.
Only the charities tried to alleviate poverty. Add from pp. 8 and 12 about the
work some charities did.

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Nothing was done about the unfair distribution of wealth. 90% of the country’s
wealth was in the hands of the richest 10% of the people. Taxation was low.
The Upper and middle classes, and some skilled workers, lived affluent lives.
In contrast, most working people’s lives fluctuated between times of relative
prosperity when they could afford housing, clothing and food, and times of
abject misery if they became unemployed.
At the bottom of society were hundreds of thousands of people whose lives
were a constant struggle. These were the unskilled labourers on very low
wages who lived in the worst of the slums of the industrial towns. Many were
casual labourers like dockers or those who worked in the building trade. Life
was cheap and life expectancy was low. Sanitation was non-existent and
disease was rife.
Only the charities tried to alleviate poverty. Add from pp. 8 and 12 about the
work some charities did.