Deserving poor
What Deserving poor means in History GCSE, as defined for Pearson Edexcel.
Definitions of Deserving poor
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Reference: Pearson Edexcel
People who were unable to work, distinguished by the law from 'sturdy beggars' or vagabonds who were able but unemployed.
Those unable to work due to age or illness, distinguished from others in Elizabethan attitudes towards the poor.
Topics that use Deserving poor
- Option 10: c1500–c1700: Crime and punishment in early modern England - 1 Nature and changing definitions of criminal activity (Pearson Edexcel GCSE)
- Option B4: Key topic 3: Elizabethan society in the Age of Exploration, 1558–88 - 2 The ‘problem’ of the poor (Pearson Edexcel GCSE)
Related terms
- Agricultural transformation
- Continuity and change
- Crimes against authority
- Economic hardship
- Treason
- Vagabondage
- Witchcraft
- Able-bodied unemployed
Using Deserving poor in the exam
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