In the UK a workhouse (poorhouse) was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment.  Often, these abused the workers and obtained economic profit from the workers. Although workhouses were formally abolished by the same legislation in 1930, many continued under their new appellation of Public Assistance Institutions under the control of local authorities. It was not until the introduction of the National Assistance Act 1948 that the last vestiges of the Poor Law finally disappeared, and with them the workhouses.