The Dignity Of labour Vs The Comfort Of Ownership

Victorian society disputed long and hard about the worthy and unworthy poor.
Worth was supposed to be based on work. But however hard many worked
they were no more or less than sustainable loss-leaders to themselves
and cannon fodder for the gain of their employers, landlords and others
who owned the fixed assets which everyone was dependent upon.
These workers were the ones most worth any relief on offer,
but not for themselves. More for how helping them supported the owners
of the assets that everyone, the poor most of all, were dependent upon.
Thus poor relief was actually respite for the rich who were dependent on the poor, for their labour.

The unworthy poor were those who's loss-leader lives
were led solely for the profit of shadowy middle men,
land based pirates, who left the poor weak,
and insufficiently deferential to wealth to have any value in 'respected' society.