After 1834 in Britain, Many workhouses were built to house to growing population of poor people; overall, they served the poor very well by housing the people who could not support themselves or their families. The 3 main points I will be talking about in this essay is how the poor benefited from the workhouses, how the middle class people benefited from the workhouses and also the Rules and regulations of the workhouses. But first, I must tell you how the workhouses started to be built. Since Elizabethan times, poor people would be supported by the parish, supported by something call "outdoor relief". This was simply letting the paupers (poor people) stay in their own house, but still received money from overseers. In 1834 a New Poor Law was passed because of the growing population, the rising prices of food and the cost of outdoor relief. This new law stated 3 main rules: From 1834, anyone who needed outdoor relief would have to go to a workhouse, the parishes were grouped together in poor law unions, these unions would take care of the poor and that the conditions inside the workhouses had to be worse than the conditions of the lowest paid worker outside the workhouse.
The poor non-working class of Britain definitely benefited greatly from the workhouses. Many of the homeless people were put into these workhouses and then after a few years, given a job to make money and support their families. A report on the destination of boys who left Gressenhall workhouse (1845-53) showed that out of 100 boys, the boys of the workhouses got to become Artists, members of the Army, Carpenters, Gentlemen's service, harness maker, printers, shoemakers, tailors, school masters, farm boys and others This report shows us that going into a workhouse did not...