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The
workhouse was the main objective of this new
act. Those claiming relief from their union
could now only do so if they gave up their
home, lodgings, and all personal property they
had. Their relief would be the provision of
basic shelter, food and clothing in return for
their hard labour. The poor were no longer
pitied, so all dignity the poor had once held
was stripped away.
It was the
belief that only the real poor would degrade
themselves to such a level, and that the vast
majority of poor who had claimed relief
before had only done so out of idleness. A sin
in the eyes of Victorian society.
However this
was not the case and society was faced with a
huge number of inmates.
Society and the landscape of the country was
now to change forever.
The workhouse had arrived.
By 1926 there were some 226,000 inmates in the
600 workhouses.
In 1929 the Local Government Act abolished
workhouses and their unions passed their
responsibilities to county boroughs and local
councils.
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