The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Household living arrangements and old age pauperism in late-Victorian England

Household living arrangements and old age pauperism in late-Victorian England
Household living arrangements and old age pauperism in late-Victorian England
The fortunes of older people in late nineteenth century England varied considerably. At the two extremes were a comfortable retirement and complete reliance on the New Poor Law, but most older people got by on some combination of part-time work, familial support and transfer payments from the New Poor Law. This paper considers the extent to which access to resources during working age affected the risk of becoming pauperised (that is, dependent on transfer payments from the New Poor Law) in old age. We hypothesise that access to resources was an important determinant of old age pauperisation, and that such access was associated with household living arrangements in earlier life. The analysis is conducted at both aggregate and individual levels, and is based on a sample of small areas in England. We link census data to New Poor Law records to assess the extent to which individuals relied on payments from the New Poor Law in their old age. We distinguish between those who, in their old age, received transfer payments while living in their own homes and those who were institutionalised through admission to the workhouse. The main finding is that people who, in earlier adult life, lived in households containing extended family members were less likely to have recourse to the New Poor Law in their old age than those who, in earlier adult life, lived with only their spouse and offspring. The results also support previous work that has found that females were more likely than males to be supported by the New Poor Law, but that males were more likely than females to enter workhouses.
poverty, old age, household structure, welfare payments, living arrangement
1-13
Heritage, Tom
b7be57ea-87d0-4474-9122-f51b3b3cc9fe
Hinde, Andrew
0691a8ab-dcdb-4694-93b4-40d5e71f672d
Clifford, David
9686f96b-3d0c-48d2-a694-00c87b536fde
Heritage, Tom
b7be57ea-87d0-4474-9122-f51b3b3cc9fe
Hinde, Andrew
0691a8ab-dcdb-4694-93b4-40d5e71f672d
Clifford, David
9686f96b-3d0c-48d2-a694-00c87b536fde

Heritage, Tom, Hinde, Andrew and Clifford, David (2020) Household living arrangements and old age pauperism in late-Victorian England. Genealogy, 4 (2), 1-13. (doi:10.3390/genealogy4020055).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The fortunes of older people in late nineteenth century England varied considerably. At the two extremes were a comfortable retirement and complete reliance on the New Poor Law, but most older people got by on some combination of part-time work, familial support and transfer payments from the New Poor Law. This paper considers the extent to which access to resources during working age affected the risk of becoming pauperised (that is, dependent on transfer payments from the New Poor Law) in old age. We hypothesise that access to resources was an important determinant of old age pauperisation, and that such access was associated with household living arrangements in earlier life. The analysis is conducted at both aggregate and individual levels, and is based on a sample of small areas in England. We link census data to New Poor Law records to assess the extent to which individuals relied on payments from the New Poor Law in their old age. We distinguish between those who, in their old age, received transfer payments while living in their own homes and those who were institutionalised through admission to the workhouse. The main finding is that people who, in earlier adult life, lived in households containing extended family members were less likely to have recourse to the New Poor Law in their old age than those who, in earlier adult life, lived with only their spouse and offspring. The results also support previous work that has found that females were more likely than males to be supported by the New Poor Law, but that males were more likely than females to enter workhouses.

Text
Household living arrangements - Accepted Manuscript
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (432kB)
Text
genealogy-04-00055 (1) - Version of Record
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (220kB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 21 April 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 5 May 2020
Published date: June 2020
Keywords: poverty, old age, household structure, welfare payments, living arrangement

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 439672
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/439672
PURE UUID: 23509e25-1d6d-4b9c-aae7-9b7c3f7417fa
ORCID for Andrew Hinde: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-8909-9152
ORCID for David Clifford: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5347-0706

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 29 Apr 2020 16:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 05:30

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Tom Heritage
Author: Andrew Hinde ORCID iD
Author: David Clifford ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×