Unemployment Assistance in Great Britain

The British Unemployment Assistance Act of 1934 is unquestionably the most important legislative innovation in the field of public poor relief since the passage of the Elizabethan poor laws. It represents the final fruition of the movement for the “break-up” of the old poor law system, for by its provision the “break-up” is made virtually complete. In sweeping terms, it adopts the principle of national responsibility for the care of the nation's ablebodied poor, and establishes for the administration of the duties thereby thrust upon the national government a vast new machinery directly operated from Whitehall. Local responsibility for a major portion of a basic governmental function is thus completely wiped out, and the old poor law stands stripped of its essential substance and significance, a mere shell of the former system out of which grew the modern institutions of English local government.