The main objectives of the Old Poor Law were:.
-the establishment of the parish as the administrative unit responsible for poor relief with church wardens, or parish overseers collecting poor rates to finance the system .
-provision of materials such as flax, hemp and wool to provide work for the able-bodied poor.
-the setting to work and apprenticeship for children.
-the relief of the "impotent poor", i. e. the blind, the lame and so on.
Poor rates were originally a form of income tax and were collected by parish overseers.
They were paid by the inhabitants of a parish unit according to their ability to pay.
If they failed to pay, a high fine could be imposed, their property could be seized or they could even be sent to prison.
In 1723 the "Knatchbull Act" - or the more common term "Workhouse Test Act"- was introduced. Under this act workhouses were to be set up by parishes and the so-called workhouse-test was invented. That meant that relief would only be available for those who were desperate enough to accept the regime of a workhouse and its rules. So, there was clearly no relief outside the workhouse. .
With this act 300 workhouses were set up with further 300 in 1750.
3. 2. The New Poor Law:.
In 1834 under Queen Victoria there was a Poor Law reform: "The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834", which made a strict distinction between deserving poor and undeserving through a stricter workhouse test, i. e. it was assumed that anyone prepared to accept relief in the repellent workhouse must be lacking the moral determination to survive outside it.
That clearly meant that poor people got socially stigmatized and had to wear the "badge of poverty".
Another guiding principle of this act was the "less egibility", i. e. conditions in the workhoses should never be better then those of an "independent labourer of the lowest class".
Thus, workhouses were intended to replace all other forms of outdoor relief (payments in money or goods for those outside the workhouses) were to end within two years.