 This system allowed greater sensitivity towards paupers, but also made tyrannical behavior from overseers possible.Overseers of the Poor would know their paupers and so be able to differentiate between the "deserving" and "undeserving" poor.The Elizabethan Poor Law operated at a time when the population was small enough for everyone to know everyone else, so people's circumstances would be known and the idle poor would be unable to claim on the parishes' poor rate.