Welfare, Austerity and Social Citizenship in the UK

Edmiston, Daniel

doi:10.1017/s1474746416000531

Cited by 47 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Furthermore, disabled people are increasingly being charged with a responsibility to overcome their personal “failings” and search for, enter, and sustain paid employment or risk forfeiting their claims to what are often meagre out of work social benefits. Conditionality and austerity have combined to shape welfare reform policies, which undermine the substantive ability of social citizenship to deliver even a modicum of social security (Edmiston, ). Quantitative analysis “suggests that the procedures of welfare conditionality may be biased against those who are already at risk of social exclusion” (Reeves & Loopstra, , p. 336), including disabled people, because they are unable, rather than unwilling, to comply with the requirements now routinely attached to the receipt of social security benefits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Work, welfare, and wellbeing: The impacts of welfare conditionality on people with mental health impairments in the UK

et al. 2019

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The personal, economic, and social costs of mental ill health are increasingly acknowledged by many governments and international organisations. Simultaneously, in high‐income nations, the reach of welfare conditionality has extended to encompass many people with mental health impairments as part of on‐going welfare reforms. This is particularly the case in the UK where, especially since the introduction of Employment and Support Allowance in 2008, the rights and responsibilities of disabled people have been subject to contestation and redefinition. Following a review of the emergent international evidence on mental health and welfare conditionality, this paper explores two specific issues. First, the impacts of the application of welfare conditionality on benefit claimants with mental health impairments. Second, the effectiveness of welfare conditionality in supporting people with experience of mental ill health into paid work. In considering these questions, this paper presents original analysis of data generated in qualitative longitudinal interviews with 207 UK social security benefit recipients with experience of a range of mental health issues. The evidence suggests that welfare conditionality is largely ineffective in moving people with mental health impairments into, or closer to, paid work. Indeed, in many cases, it triggers negative health outcomes that make future employment less likely. It is concluded that the application of conditionality for people with mental health issues is inappropriate and should cease.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Work, welfare, and wellbeing: The impacts of welfare conditionality on people with mental health impairments in the UK

et al. 2019

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“…Advocates also argue that reforms are part of a bottom‐up, citizen‐initiated movement, and they have defined citizen‐initiated change as part of do‐democracy in which citizens gain influence by doing and taking responsibility for the organization of public resources for care and support . According to critics, however, these reforms have marginalized valuable practices of professional care as well as the people on the receiving end of care . They point out that many so‐called citizen initiatives were initiated top‐down by government actors or included only the happy few of well‐off citizens .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constructing democratic participation in welfare transitions: An analysis of narrative interactions

Knibbe

Horstman

2019

Health Expectations

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Objective: This article provides insights into the democratic character of local enactments of welfare reforms by analysing narrative interactions about changes in care. We analyse processes of storytelling that are part of the interactions between citizens giving, receiving and organizing care and the policymakers governing welfare reforms. We also study how narrative interactions shape understandings about changing care practices and what types of narrative interactions support democracy in care. Background: Stories about recent welfare reforms include messages about citizens' care, citizen participation, citizens' powers and revitalization of democracy. However, researchers have cast doubt on their emancipatory and democratic character. Research setting and methodology: We conducted research of four initiatives and municipal policy settings in the city of Maastricht that organized social care in lifeworlds connected to arts, crafts, farming and entrepreneurship during welfare reforms. Using narrative ethnography, we analyse narrative interactions between the master narrative of welfare reforms about 'lifeworld care' and 'citizen powers', and small stories told by participants in new care practices. Results:We identified two types of narrative interaction: idealizing and pragmatizing. Idealizing narrative interactions were strategic for care initiatives in finding support and for policymakers in proving that a so-called 'participation society' works.Pragmatizing narrative interactions gave expression to insights into the everyday practices of social care experiments and included a greater variety of stories. Conclusions:We conclude that pragmatizing narrative interactions adjust the master narrative about welfare reforms and replace ideals of independency with ideals of active participation in webs of dependency and care. K E Y W O R D Scare theory, democracy, narrative analysis, participation society, public discourse, welfare reforms | 85 KNIBBE aNd HORSTMaN

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“…In the UK there is also evidence of continuity in the shift from entitlement towards conditional funding and individual responsibility since the 1970s (Edmiston, 2017;Wright, 2016). Even so, the Conservative government expanded support for social housing investment in the 1990s while the Labour Government which succeeded Thatcher, while further restricting income related housing benefits developed policies aimed at significantly reducing child housing poverty and to improving the physical condition of the public and social rental stock (Waldfogel, 2010;Ridge, 2013;Lupton, Burchardt, Hills & Vizard, 2016).…”

Section: Background Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fiscal Austerity and Rental Housing Policy in the United States and United Kingdom, 2010–2016

Goering

Whitehead

2017

Housing Policy Debate

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Welfare, Austerity and Social Citizenship in the UK

Cited by 47 publications

References 41 publications

Work, welfare, and wellbeing: The impacts of welfare conditionality on people with mental health impairments in the UK

Work, welfare, and wellbeing: The impacts of welfare conditionality on people with mental health impairments in the UK

Constructing democratic participation in welfare transitions: An analysis of narrative interactions

Fiscal Austerity and Rental Housing Policy in the United States and United Kingdom, 2010–2016

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