- reduce the cost of supporting the poor

- remove them from the streets

- encourage the poor to work hard to support themselves (there was a general belief that being poor was a choice due to laziness)

- provide education for children housed in workhouses

 

As a result of this new law, parishes were grouped together in Unions, and each one of these had to provide a workhouse.

Conditions in the workhouse were extremely harsh, which was purposefully done as a way to deter people from "not working hard enough" to avoid these places, and even became synonymous with the Victorian Era, with several people writing and talking against the conditions of the poor workers (most notably, Richard Ostler). Families were split, as workhouses had separate areas for men, women and children (who were often orphans anyway). In a way that dehumanized these individuals even more, they were all provided with a uniform to wear during their stay in the workhouse, which was a symbol of their poverty and current situation. The meals provided were always the same and usually consisted of gruel, a mixture of oatmeal and water, and occasionally some bread. They were even prohibited to talk to one another, and would be punished harshly by the Masters that were assigned to enforce the rules. Regarding children living in workhouses, the education they were provided lacked the teaching of reading and writing, which were essential to finding a good job outside the workhouse, and that would therefore set them up for failure in the future. On top of the harsh working and living conditions, their stay wasn't even fully guaranteed, as they could be "hired out" (meaning they were sold) to work in factories and mines.