| Poor law union | |
|---|---|
| |
| Category | Ad hoc board |
| Location | England and Wales |
| Created by | Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 |
| Created |
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| Abolished by | |
| Abolished |
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| Additional status | |
| Government | |
| Subdivisions | |
Apoor law union was a geographical territory, and early local government unit, in Great Britain and Ireland.
Poor law unions existed in England and Wales from 1834 to 1930 for the administration ofpoor relief. Prior to thePoor Law Amendment Act 1834 the administration of theEnglish Poor Laws was the responsibility of thevestries of individual parishes, which varied widely in their size, populations, financial resources, rateable values and requirements. From 1834 the parishes were grouped into unions, jointly responsible for the administration of poor relief in their areas and each governed by aboard of guardians. A parish large enough to operate independently of a union was known as a poor law parish. Collectively, poor law unions and poor law parishes were known as poor law districts. The grouping of the parishes into unions caused larger centralisedworkhouses to be built to replace smaller facilities in each parish. Poor law unions were later used as a basis for the delivery ofregistration from 1837, andsanitation outside urban areas from 1875. Poor law unions were abolished by theLocal Government Act 1929, which transferred responsibility forpublic assistance to county and county borough councils.
TheEnglish Poor Laws[1] laid out the system ofpoor relief that existed inEngland and Wales[2] from the reign ofElizabeth I[1] until the emergence of the modernwelfare state after the Second World War.[3] HistorianMark Blaug has argued that the Poor Law system provided "a welfare state in miniature, relieving the elderly, widows, children, the sick, the disabled, and the unemployed and underemployed".[4]
The functions of poor law unions were exercised by boards ofguardians, partly elected byratepayers, but also includingmagistrates.
Some parishes, many in the metropolitan area of London, were able to avoid amalgamation into unions because of earlier local acts that regulated their poor law administration. TheMetropolitan Poor Act 1867 (30 & 31 Vict. c. 6) allowed thePoor Law Board to include these parishes in unions.[5]
Until 1894 the guardians consisted ofjustices of the peace along with other members elected by rate-payers, with higher rate-payers having more votes. JPs were removed andplural voting stopped in 1894, but nobody actually receiving poor relief was allowed to vote.
Their areas were espoused for other functional districts, such ascivil registration of all births, marriages and deaths which became law from 1837 andrural sanitary districts established in 1875.[6]
In 1894rural districts andurban districts were set up based on the sanitary districts (and therefore indirectly on the unions). In 1930, under theLocal Government Act 1929, the poor law unions were finally abolished and their responsibilities transferred to thecounty councils andcounty boroughs.
Under thePoor Relief (Ireland) Act 1838, three Poor Law Commissioners divided Ireland into poor law unions, in which paupers would receivepoor relief paid for by apoor rate extracted by local poor lawvaluations (ratings of rate payers).[7][8] The name "union" was adopted from the English model although boundaries were unrelated tocivil parishes. A union was named after the town on which it was centred, usually where itsworkhouse stood. Unions were defined as groups ofpoor law electoral divisions, in turn groups oftownlands. Electoral divisions returned members (guardians) to the board of guardians, to which ratepayers who paid higher rates hadmore votes.[9][10] During and after theGreat Famine, the impoverished west was redrawn to create more unions for easier administration and for computation of where suffering was most endemic. When the IrishGeneral Register Office was established in 1864, each union became a superintendent registrar's district, thus electoral divisions together formed adispensary or registrar's district.[11][12] TheLocal Government (Ireland) Act 1898 dividedadministrative counties intourban and rural districts, with each rural district corresponding to the non-urban portion of a poor law union within the county. In theIrish Free State, poor law unions and rural districts were abolished in 1925 and the powers of boards of guardians transferred to the county councils' Board of Health.[13] InNorthern Ireland, poor law unions survived until theNorthern Ireland Health and Social Care Service in 1948.[11]
ThePoor Law in Scotland was reformed by thePoor Law (Scotland) Act 1845.Poorhouses (as workhouses were generally known in Scotland) were organised at parish level.[14] The Act permitted, but did not require, parishes to join to build and operate poorhouses. A union of parishes operating a single poorhouse was known as a Combination.[15]
Poor laws of the British Isles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Poor laws by territory |  Nantwich workhouse | |
| Old Poor Law | ||
| Relief systems | ||
| New Poor Law | ||
| Changes after 1834 | ||
| Decline and abolition | ||
| Other | ||