<Li> 1782--Gilbert's Act </Li> <Li> 1795--Speenhamland </Li> <P> The origins of the Old Poor Law extend back into the 15th century with the decline of the monasteries and the breakdown of the medieval social structure . Charity was gradually replaced with a compulsory land tax levied at parish level . </P> <Ul> <Li> The impotent poor (people who can't work) were to be cared for in almshouse or a poorhouse . The law offered relief to people who were unable to work: mainly those who were "lame, impotent, old, blind". </Li> <Li> The able - bodied poor were to be set to work in a House of Industry . Materials were to be provided for the poor to be set to work . </Li> <Li> The idle poor and vagrants were to be sent to a House of Correction or even prison . </Li> <Li> Pauper children would become apprentices . </Li> </Ul>

The 1601 elizabethan poor law established which three categories of relief recipients