Poor Relief Act 1662

The Poor Relief Act 1662 (13&14 Car. II c.12), an Act for the Better Relief of the Poor of this Kingdom is also known as the Settlement Act or, more honestly, the Settlement and Removal Act.

The purpose of the Act was to establish the parish to which a person belonged (ie his/her place of "settlement"), and hence clarify which parish was responsible for him should he become in need of Poor Relief (or "chargeable" to the parish poor rates).

Of particular note is that this was the first occasion when a document proving domicile became statutory: these were called Settlement Certificates.

After 1662, if a man left his settled parish to move elsewhere, he had to take his Settlement Certificate, which guaranteed that his home parish would pay for his "removal" costs (from the host parish) back to his home if he needed welfare.

The Settlement Act was repealed in 1834 (under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 which introduced the Union Workhouse), though not fully repealed until 1948.

External Links

For full text of the Act, see Higginbotham, Peter 2000- Poor Laws <http://www.workhouses.org.uk/poorlaws/> Oxford University web, Oxford – then 1662 Settlement Act.