Mr Tomlinson’s group – coursework questions
Hope you’re having a nice holiday.
You have a lot of info in your folder that is needed to answer question 3. (You could also do some research of your own if you really wanted to!) The question requires you to make YOUR mind up as to what you think was the most important reason.
There were quite a few reasons for the introduction of the poor law in 1834. Cost was only one of them. Conditions of the workhouses was another, the swing riots another, the inefficiency of The Speenhamland system another – (all of this was explained in the last lesson, I also printed the powerpoint out with the information on as people wanted me to do)
What do YOU think? Do you think it was the fact that cost of paying for the poor was rising? Or was it that people were becoming lazy because of the way the old system was set up and this was inefficient? Or do you think it was because of the swing riots which proved that the old system wasn’t working properly? Also the workhouses that people were able to turn to were too ‘comfortable’, maybe this was an important factor. Try to write a paragraph on each if you can linking each point into the question. Use the little paragraph structure I gave you all in the last lesson.
Don’t worry too much, but definitely have a go at the question. I deliberately haven’t spent as much time with you all on this question as I wanted to see you using your skills to try to answer it. It obviously won’t be graded immediately, and this is a draft for now. We’ll spend some time on it next week.
You can submit it on the blog or write or type it.
See Mr Lynch’s post below for some further information.
Hope this helps.
Mr T
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Coursework Question 1 Describe how the speenhamland system operated.
The Speenhamland system made an allowance scale to “top up” wages to a certain level by the parish. It would depend on the price of bread and the number of children. This was done by a an overseer. The Overseer was appored to deal with the poor. The Money would come from the parish.
Question 2 Explain the effects of the speenhamland system
The Speenhamland system saved many families from starvation this was because the parish was topping up the poor peoples money that why spent on bread.
However population was growing because the more children they had the more money the parish had to pay for them.
It also encouraged lazness this is because the parish would give the poor money whether they when to work or not and this was a negative affect.
A positive was that it stoped riots and disturbances about food and money By giveing everyone money to feed them.
In the longterm however the system damaged the workers sence of pride and self-respect another negative effect.
It also encoraged employes to keep wages low because they knew that the wages would be topped up by the parish. They Knew they could make profit.
The paish had very little control of the cost of bread this means that the parish Somtimes had to pay a big deal of money for the poor.
Question 3 explain why the workhouse conditions caused changes
To start with the poor was geting alot of help they was geting money to make sure they could eat. They had Good indoor and outdoor relief But because they was geting so much help it was stoping them from working and doing thing by themself this was affecting there selfrespect and encouraged lazyworkers, larger famileys and low wages because enployer could get away with giving them bad pay because the Parish would top it up
In 1832 the royal commision was formaned they found many promblems with the old Speenhamland System, the Cost ineffcient inconsistant alowances, and Nice workhouses. They came up with an new system, this System for poor relief thought the whole of the country. Outdoor relief for bodied able ended Poor people were only alowed poor relief if they entented the workhouse’s But work house would be very tough and the conditionns would be harsh and very low pay for hard worrk.
^^ Dont thing the Last paragraph is very well write i will need your help to go throught it and tell me where to improve. Many thanks
Describe how the Speenhamland system operated.
The speenhamland system operated by giving people more moeny. enough to survive by topping up wages. the speenhamland system was where the [arish looked after the paupers. the parish would top up the wages, the poor labourers to subsitence level. the amount of money that the parish was given out depended on bread prices. the person in charge of the poor was called the overseer of the poor. the more they operated was that the more children a family had.
Explain the effects of the Speenhamland System.
The speenhamland system had many effects some positive but some negative. One beneficial effect of the Speenhamland system was that it helped people from starvation. Since many people were poor it would give them some money by topping up their wages so they could buy food at a reasonable price. This was known as poor relief. there were a few bad effects aswell. One of the criticisms was that it encouraged lazy workers, this was because they would receive the same amount of money, even whilst doing nothing. Another problem with the speenhamland system was that in the long term it made labourers worse off as it could hugely damage the worker’s pride and self-respect. However, the system prevented starvation and saved many lives. the system helped raise the issue of poverty. It also kept the workers quiet at a time of high prices and low wages. Due to the speenhamland system it was said to encourage families. This was because the more children you had the more food/money you recieved. the problem with this was that if a family had alot of children then the Government would have to pay out alot of money to pay for them.
Question 1
Describe how the Speenhamland system operated.
The Speenhamland system operated by the parish topping up the wages to look after the poor this is based on how many children are in the family and the price of bread. And the more children you have the more money the parish will help you by if you did not have all the money to by food then the parish would give you more money. Overseer sot the poor were appointed to help. The money comes from the middle or upper class- the ones with a lot of money.
Question 2
Explain the effects of the Speenhamland system.
The Speenhamland system helped many families because the parish would top up the wages of the bread however this made many people lazy because the parish would top up the wages no matter what. The population grew very big because the more children you have the more money you would get. The Parish had no control of the cost of bread that mean they paid a lot of money out to the poor people this is a negative effect. Many people did not work because they know they would get money anyways. But this did help people with there families.
Question 3
They had very good outdoor and indoor but it stopped many people from working because they had money from the parish this made them lazy. larger famileys had low wages because enployer could get away with giving them bad wages because the Parish would top it up nomatter what.They had to top wages up so families can eat and bye food. workhouseahad very bad conditions and pay very low wages and they was very harsh by little food and drink .
Coursework Question 1 Describe how the Speenhamland system operated.
The Speenhamland system made an allowance scale to “top up” wages to a certain level by the parish. It would depend on the price of bread that would go up if they had a bad harvest it would also depend on the number of children this was because the more children the poor had the more money the rich had to pay. This was done by an overseer, the Overseer was appointed to deal with the poor; the money that he collected would come from the parish where the rich people had to pay the rates .
Question 2 Explain the effects of the Speenhamland system
The Speenhamland system saved many families from starvation this was because the parish was topping up the poor peoples money that they spent on bread. They earn 6s but need 9s so the parishes give this man 3s a week wxra to survive
However population was growing for many reasons and because of this the parish had to pay more, but children the poor had the more money the parish had to pay for them.
People thought also encouraged laziness because the parish would give the poor money whether people when to work or not and this was a negative affect In the long term however the system damaged the workers sense of pride and self-respect another negative effect.
A positive was that it stopped riots and disturbances about food and money By giving everyone money to feed them..
It also encouraged employees to keep wages low because they knew that the wages would be topped up by the parish. They knew they could make profit.
The parish had very little control of the cost of bread this means that the parish Sometimes had to pay a big deal of money for the poor For example it would depend on the harvest
Question 3 the rising cost of the poor relief was more important reason for the introduction of the new poor law
People were getting sick of having to pay for the poor this was because the price of bread kept going up and up and that because the poor was having children there was more people to pay for. So they wonted a change they when on to say that the poor were getting an easy life, they also said that workhouse were to comfortable this was because there was nothing that stopped them from going in to the workhouse to start with.
People thought that the government were giving the poor to much help, with indoor and outdoor and the top up system, meant that the government would top up there wages so that that the hold family could have bread to eat.
They also said that there work were getting lazy and had very low self-esteem this was because the government gave them money even if they didn’t go to work so most people didn’t wont to go to work.
The government made changed like. Ending all indoor and outdoor and make workhouse really hard and nasty places this was to make people chooses not to go into the workhouse and make it a last resort, So that more people will work.
I think the poor had a really good system but because some people abused the system and let the parish pay for them