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WHAT PROBLEMS DID THE WORKHOUSE SOLVE?

What problems, if any, did the workhouse solve?


In this essay I intend to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of the workhouse system. By starting with a brief introduction to how and why the need for a workhouse arose, with references to relevant journals and websites, I hope to illustrate how the initial benefit scheme was abused and later abolished. Thus showing the origin of the present day social benefit system.

Workhouses are said to have dated back from 1601 when, through the Act for the Relief of the Poor, local parishes were assigned responsibility of the poor in their parish. In the parishes that could afford to do so, small workhouses were built in order to employ both the poor, and children whose parents were deemed too poor to look after them. It was not regarded as a place of punishment, but was even referred to in some cases as, ‘Pauper Palaces,’ as some thought conditions were reasonable and often better than those found living at home employed in th...

Posted by: Sylvia Schiavoni

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