Classifications of poor used in the Poor Law system

Classifications of poor used in the Poor Law system classified people into categories for those considered deserving of poor relief and those who were not considered deserving of poor relief.

• The impotent poor could not look after themselves or go to work. They included the ill, the infirm, the elderly, and children with no one to properly care for them. It was generally held that they should be looked after.
• The able-bodied poor normally referred to those who were unable to find work – either due to cyclical or long term unemployment in the area, or a lack of skills. Attempts to assist these people, and move them out of this category, varied over the centuries, but usually consisted of relief either in the form of work or money.
• The idle poor were of able body but were unwilling to work. They were not considered deserving of poor relief.
• Vagrants or beggars, sometimes termed "sturdy rogues", were those who could work but had refused to. Such people were seen in the 16th and 17th centuries as potential criminals, apt to do mischief when hired for the purpose. They were normally seen as people needing punishment, and as such were often whipped in the market place as an example to others, or sometimes sent to houses of correction.

Poor Laws of the British Isles
Poor Laws by territory	England and Wales Scotland Ireland Isle of Man Channel Islands	Nantwich workhouse
Old Poor Law	Vagabonds and Beggars Act 1494 Tudor Poor Laws Act for the Relief of the Poor 1597 Elizabethan Poor Law (1601) Poor Relief Act 1662 Poor Act 1697 Workhouse Test Act Relief of the Poor Act 1782 House of Correction Overseer of the poor Poor rate Poor relief
Relief systems	Indoor relief Outdoor relief Classification of the poor Speenhamland Labour Rate Roundsman Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor
New Poor Law	Royal commission (1832) Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 Poor Law (Scotland) Act 1845 Less eligibility Workhouse Workhouse test Board of guardians Outdoor Labour Test Order Outdoor Relief Prohibitory Order Poor law unions Opposition Book of Murder Scottish poorhouses
Changes after 1834	Poor Law Commission Poor Law Board Local Government Board Andover workhouse scandal Huddersfield workhouse scandal Union Chargeability Act
Decline and abolition	Liberal welfare reforms Royal Commission (1905–09) Majority Report Minority Report Interwar poverty National Assistance Act 1948
Other	Historiography of the Poor Laws Timeline of the Poor Law system Poor Relief Act List of poor law unions in England List of poor law unions in Wales List of Irish Poor Law Unions