Welfare conditionality is both ambitious and ambiguous for the frontline workers who put policy into practice. Since January 2017, the Norwegian frontline service should require social assistance benefit recipients under the age of 30 to participate in some sort of work-related activation, so-called mandatory activation. Drawing on qualitative interviews with frontline workers at local offices in the Norwegian Public Welfare Service (NAV), we investigate how the requirement is implemented in a context of a professionalised social welfare service. Mandatory activation is arguably a paternalistic measure. Drawing on Bernardo Zacka's concept of moral dispositions and Laura Specker Sullivan's concepts of maternalism, our findings indicate that at the frontline, mandatory activation policies are implemented by maternalistic decision making, emphasising the interpersonal relation between trained caseworkers and clients. The caseworkers use their discretionary powers in the implementation of conditionality and sanctions by emphasising care and support as embedded in the strict rules. K E Y W O R D S activation, maternalism, Norway, social assistance, street-level work, welfare conditionality, youth
Welfare conditionality, particularly stringent benefit sanctions, has become increasingly prevalent in Western welfare states in recent decades. Although mandatory activation has received great attention in research, the need for further studies on the implementation of frontline sanctions has become evident, mainly where enabling measures are concerned. This article contributes to frontline and deservingness literature, examining how caseworkers cope with non-compliance cases and which deservingness assessments they invoke, in the Norwegian social assistance. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews with caseworkers at a Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) office, this study shows how caseworkers informally construct a typology of non-compliance cases: 'unreachable', 'incapable' and 'unwilling'. The way caseworkers perceive the client's attitude, level of need and control over neediness seem to be decisive in distinguishing between cases. Caseworkers display a tendency to attribute non-compliance to incapability, which leads them to renegotiate activation requirements. As such, caseworkers' deservingness assessments seem to shape sanctioning practices. Based on these findings, this article argues for a more nuanced understanding of frontline sanctions. SAMMENDRAGDe siste tiårene har aktivitetsplikt og sanksjonsregimer blitt et viktig kjennetegn ved velferdsstater. Aktivering har fått mye oppmerksomhet i velferdsforskning, men hvordan sanksjoner ved brudd på aktivitetskrav iverksettes i frontlinjen har vaert mindre studert. Artikkelen undersøker hvordan NAV-veiledere håndterer brudd på aktivitetskravet i sosialhjelp og hvordan deres oppfatninger av deservingness bidrar til å kategoriserer sosialhjelpsmottakerne. Funnene fra feltarbeid og intervjuer med veiledere i et NAV kontor viser at veiledere konstruerer en uformell typologi: 'utilgjengelig', 'kan ikke', 'vil ikke'. Måten veiledere oppfatter brukernes holdning, behovsnivå, og kontroll over egen situasjon på, virker avgjørende for hvordan de kategoriserer slike situasjoner. Veiledere tenderer til å oppfatte at brukerne 'ikke kan', for deretter å forhandle om hvorvidt aktivitetskravene bør endres. På denne måten er veilederes oppfatninger av deservingness med på å forme sanksjonspraksis. Denne artikkelen argumenterer for en mer nyansert forståelse av sanksjonering i frontlinjen.
Vitenskapelig publikasjon Aktivitetspliktens innside og utside Unge mottakere av sosialhjelp og deres erfaringer med aktivitetsplikt The Inside and Outside of Mandatory Activation Young Benefit Recipients' Experiences with Mandatory Activation in Norway
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