Success criteria  Describe the budget of a poor family in Britain before 1914  Identify at least three difficulties of the poor in this period  Successfully answer a ‘How useful’ question

The Life of the Poor Lesson starter What do the following have in common?  Unemployment benefit  Old age pensions  Child benefit Today we will learn about the daily living conditions of the poor in Britain before 1914

3 Key terms: Deserving Poor: Those people such as the old, the sick and the young who were poor through no fault of their own and who deserve help. Poverty: A lack of money that leads to bad housing, bad health, poor education and other social problems. Self-help: An idea that people should help themselves to get out of poverty through their own hard work.

Working class life  Average weekly income was around £1  Working class jobs were mainly in manual occupations like mining and shipbuilding  Careful budgeting was essential as money was scarce  Biggest expense was food and this was mainly bread and cheap meat like bacon  Housing could be a problem as flats often damp, cold with only cold running water and one room

Task 1 Our aims are to encourage, in every available way, the efforts of the poor to live sober lives and to discourage idleness. In general, we want to help those who are sober and hardworking but who through illness or accident are in danger of being plunged into poverty. These are the only people who deserve our help. Source A is by the Aberdeen Association for Improving the Conditions of the Poor, in the late 19th century. (6 marks) How useful is Source A as evidence of attitudes to the poor at the end of the 19 th century?

Model answer The source is useful as it is a primary source from the late 19 th century. The source was written by experts who work with the poor so they will most likely understand the problems. The source content concerns the citizens of Aberdeen which is useful as it was an industrial city which would have experienced poverty. However, the source has a ‘laissez faire’ attitude towards the poor which not everyone shared. The source also says that drinking and laziness are the causes of poverty when size of family, low wages and irregular work were the real causes. Lastly the source also seems to be restricted to the situation in Aberdeen and not Britain as a whole.

7 Marking Criteria Candidates must make a judgement about the usefulness of the source and support this by making evaluative comments on identified aspects of the source. 1 mark should be given for each relevant comment to a max of 6. -max 4 marks for evaluative comments relating to author, type of source, purple and timing -max 2 marks given for comments relating to content of source -max 2 marks given for comments relating to points of omission

Source A is from a letter describing conditions in London around 1890 by a campaigner for change. In one cellar a sanitary inspector reports finding a father, mother, three children and four pigs! In another room a missionary found a man ill with smallpox, his wife just recovering from the birth of her eight child, and the children running about half naked and covered with dirt. Despite efforts of local charities, elsewhere was a poor widow, her three children, and a child who had been dead 13 days. Evaluate the usefulness of Source A as evidence of the effects of poverty in Britain around (6 marks) You may want to say who wrote it, when they wrote it, why they wrote it, what they say or what has been missed out.)

9 Examples of aspects of source and relevant comments: Aspect of the sourcePossible comment Author: campaigner for change useful as it was an eyewitness but less useful as it has clear bias Type of source: a letter a personal communication so may be less guarded, so source may be more useful Purpose: to describe the extent of the poverty in London Purpose may have caused the writer to exaggerate the problem, so source may be less useful Timing: 1890 When poverty in London was at its worst ContentPossible content in one cellar a sanitary inspector reports finding a father, mother, three children and four pigs Useful as its very detailed In another room a missionary found a man ill with smallpox useful as it reflects what we know to be fairly typical conditions in poorer areas Children running about half naked and covered with dirt less useful as it exaggerates for effect