The Poor Act 1562 or Act for the Relief of the Poor^[1] was a law passed in England under Queen Elizabeth I (5 Eliz. 1. c. 3). It is a part of the Tudor Poor Laws.

It extended the Poor Act 1555. It further provided that those who refused, after exhortation by the bishop, to contribute to poor relief could be bound over by a justice of the peace and assessed fines.^[2]

A reviver of the statute of 22 H. 8. c. 12. and 3 & 4 Ed. 6. c. 16. touching relieving poor and impotent persons, and punishment of vagabonds. The poor and impotent persons of every parish shall be relieved of that which every person will of their charity give weekly; and the same relief shall be gathered in every parish by collectors assigned, and weekly distributed to the poor for none of them shall openly go or sit begging. And if any parishioner shall obstinately refuse to pay reasonably towards the relief of the said poor, or shall discourage others; then the justices of peace at the quarter-sessions may tax him to a reasonable weekly sum; which if he refuse, to pay they may commit him to prison. And if any parish have in it more impotent poor persons than they are able to relieve, then the juftices of the peace of the county may licence so many of them as they shall think good, to beg in one or more hundreds of the same county. And if any poor beg in any other place than he is licensed, he shall be punished as a vagabond according to the stat of 22 H. 8. To endure to the end of the first session of the next parliament.