English Poor Laws

Okay kiddo, imagine you are living in a very old village in England a long time ago, where people didn't have enough money to buy food or get proper shelter. There were a lot of poor people like you that were struggling to survive.

So, to help you and everyone else who was struggling, the government made a set of rules called the English Poor Laws. These laws aimed to provide help to poor people, especially those who were sick, disabled or elderly.

Under the Poor Laws, each village was responsible for taking care of their poor people. The village would elect officials to manage the funds and distribute them to those who needed help.

If you were poor, you could go to the officials and ask for help. But there were rules for who could receive help – you usually had to be old, sick, or disabled, and you had to prove that you were not able to support yourself.

If the officials decided to give you help, they would give you some money or help you find a job or a place to stay. But, if you were able to work, you had to find a job or you wouldn't get any help. The officials wanted to make sure that people were not just lazy and trying to get free money.

The Poor Laws existed for a very long time, but they weren't perfect. Some people said that the laws didn't help enough, while others said that they were too generous and that people were taking advantage of them. In the end, the English Poor Laws were changed many times until they were finally replaced with a new system of social welfare in the mid-20th century.