Union Chargeability Act 1865

United Kingdom legislation

Union Chargeability Act 1865^[a]
Dates
Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to provide for the better Distribution of the Charge for the Relief of the Poor in Unions.
Citation	28 & 29 Vict. c. 79
Royal assent	29 June 1865

The Union Chargeability Act 1865 (28 & 29 Vict. c. 79) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was passed after the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834. The intention of the act was to broaden the base of funding for relief provided by the Poor Laws. ^[1]

History

Following the passage of the new poor law in 1834 problems emerged with the financing of the relief for the poor provided in that act.

Although the intention of the New Poor Law was to aggregate parishes into unions among which financial burden of building expensive workhouses was pooled, liability to the union was based on the composition of the parish. Some parishes were able to escape financial liability by organizing into "close" parishes with a minimum of labourer-residents. In this way, the financial burden of the poor fell mainly on "open" parishes.^[2]

The Union Chargeability Act 1865 was thus passed so that the financial burden of paupers was shared more equally on a union-wide basis.^[1]

The debate was contentious, with complaints centered around the issues of settlement and removal. A proposal was made to reduce the requirements to be given relief in a place where the labourer had lived, rather than removing them to their prior place of comicile. This was deemed unacceptable, as it was claimed the poor would travel to large cities in order to avail themselves of relief. Removal of these proposed amendments finally allowed the bill to be passed on 15 May 1865.^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b Caplan, Maurice (1978). "The New Poor Law and the Struggle for Union Chargeability" (PDF). International Review of Social History. 23 (2): 267–300 – via Cambridge Core.
^ Holderness, B. A. (1972). "'Open' and 'Close' Parishes in England in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries". The Agricultural History Review. 20 (2): 126–139. ISSN 0002-1490.
^ "Mr. Villiers on Monday carried his Union Chargeability Bill". The Spectator Archive. 20 May 1865. Retrieved 22 April 2023.

Notes

^ This short title was conferred on this Act by section 17 of this Act.

The Union Chargeability Act 1865. Printed by George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's most excellent Majesty. London. 1865. At pages 721 to 724 of A Collection of the Public General Statutes passed in the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Years of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. Printed by George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's most excellent Majesty. London. 1865.
William Cunningham Glen. Villiers' Union Chargeability Act, 1865; with an Introduction and Commentary; also, The Practice of Poor Removals, Adapted to the Removal of Union Poor. Second Edition. Shaw and Sons. Fetter Lane, London. 1866.

Poor laws of the British Isles

Poor laws by territory