The Impacts of Welfare Conditionality: Sanctions Support and Behaviour Change (Welfare Conditionality)

By: Peter Dwyer and Lisa Scullion and Katy Jones and Jenny McNeill and Alasdair B.R. Stewart

Sign Up Now! Already a Member? Log In
You must be logged into Bookshare to access this title. Learn about membership options, or view our freely available titles.

Synopsis: Should a citizen’s right to social welfare be contingent on their personal behaviour? Welfare conditionality, linking citizens’ eligibility for social benefits and services to prescribed compulsory responsibilities or behaviours, has become a key component of welfare reform in many nations. This book uses qualitative longitudinal data, from repeat interviews with people subject to compulsion and sanction in their everyday lives, to analyse the effectiveness and ethicality of welfare conditionality in promoting and sustaining behaviour change in the UK. Given the negative outcomes that welfare conditionality routinely triggers, this book calls for the abandonment of these sanctions and reiterates the importance of genuinely supportive policies that promote social security and wider equality.