English Poor Laws

There's no welfare state at all until after the Second World War.

The Poor Law only got got rid of completely after the Second World War, when the welfare state comes in.

It finally gets, um, officially, um, removed.

But that's what everyone was relying on, if you really fell on hard times before the Second World War-

Mm

... was the Poor Law, which was first-

It's quite shocking to think that reaches so far

... established in the Elizabeth I, or was it, uh, James the, I think it's the final year of Elizabeth I's reign.

"Are they still in operation?" "They are.

Still," returned the gentleman, "I wish I could say they were not." "The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?" said Scrooge.

"Both very, sir." "Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course," said Scrooge.

"I'm very glad to hear it." Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude, returned the gentlemen.

Welcome to the Proper British History Podcast.

Today, we trace Britain's move from medieval church charity through the dissolution and poor laws to the Beveridge Report and beyond, showing what really happened and why later myths persist.

We begin in a very different Britain, a land where the medieval church was not just a place of worship but also a bank, an almshouse, a hospice, and a safety net for those who had no bread to eat.

The doctrine of almsgiving, limosinae in Latin, was woven into the moral fabric by monks who saw every act of mercy as a step towards salvation and believed that the poor were owed charity simply because God had created all things.

1595, not 16, but 1595.

And it was the Poor Laws, the Elizabethan Act, And it was to do to help people who'd come into the cities, were in poverty and couldn't find work and had resorted to crime.

You know, you may know that the Oliver Twist story, you know, the boy ends up in an orphanage and, you know, and here's this gang running around and stealing things.

And he has the work for the gang and he ends up in the orphanage.