Many impoverished people, including the elderly, chose to resort to a life of starvation, begging, or even suicide - rather than endure life in the workhouses.
The elderly were typically categorized as "deserving" poor yet still suffered under the Poor Law. Though most of the elderly people were exempt from the workhouses, this was not the case for 70 year old William May. The elderly May had fled from a workhouse shouting “they want to kill me” . Following May’s escape from the workhouse he was eventually found dead and emaciated in a 9x5 feet room.