Overview of First Wave Findings Presentation for the Greater Manchester Welfare Rights Advisors Group (GMWRAG) Manchester Town Hall, Manchester, UK, Friday 17th June 2016 Dr Lisa Scullion Reader in Social Policy and Associate Director Sustainable Housing & Urban Studies Unit (SHUSU) University of Salford, UK @WelCond

Overview of presentation 2 Part 1: Introduction to Welfare Conditionality: Sanctions, Support and Behaviour Change Part 2: First wave findings Sanctions Support Behaviour change Ethics Part 3: Next steps for the project

3 Part 1: Introduction to Welfare Conditionality: Sanctions, Support and Behaviour Change

Welfare conditionality: sanctions, support and behaviour change (2013-2018) 4 The team Six partner Universities: Glasgow Heriot-Watt Salford Sheffield Sheffield Hallam York The Salford Team: Dr Lisa Scullion (Salford lead) Katy Jones (Research Fellow, SHUSU) Liviu Dinu (Pathway to Excellence PhD student) Twin aims To consider the impact and ethicality of welfare conditionality Funded by ESRC grant ES/K002163​/2

Welfare conditionality: sanctions, support and behaviour change (2013-2018) 5 Fieldwork with three sets of respondents Semi-structured interviews with 52 policy stakeholders policymakers/actors 27 focus groups with frontline welfare practitioners who implement policy Three rounds of repeat qualitative longitudinal interviews with a diverse sample of 480 welfare recipients who are subject to welfare conditionality (i.e. 1440 interviews in total)

Welfare conditionality: sanctions, support and behaviour change (2013-2018) 6 Exploring welfare conditionality across a range of policy domains and groups Recipients of social security benefits (unemployed people, lone parents, disabled people, Universal Credit ), homeless people, social tenants, individuals/families subject to anti-social behaviour orders/family intervention projects, offenders and migrants Locations in England and Scotland Ashton-under-Lyne, Bath, Bolton, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, London, Manchester, Peterborough, Salford, Sheffield, Warrington

Part 2: First wave findings 7 Part 2: First wave findings

Sanctions 8 Negative impacts universally reported by welfare service users I've gone a lot more into myself.… To be honest, it's stressed me out that much…I'm just not how I was, where I was always full of life (Female Universal Credit claimant, Greater Manchester) Disproportionate and inappropriate sanctions It was a genuine mistake but I'd still gone in that day, it's not as though I hadn't turned up or anything. So I rang up straightaway, I explained my situation and like I say it was generally just daft, but it was a mistake, an innocent but stupid mistake, we all make mistakes but I still did turn up and I got a sanction for a week (Male Universal Credit claimant, Greater Manchester)

Sanctions Counter productive and negative consequences 9 Counter productive and negative consequences They shouldn't just take money off people and leave them with nothing, do you know what I mean? It shouldn't happen. See I had to go out robbing when they done that, do you know what I mean? I didn't do the food banks then. I had to go out robbing (Male subject to ASB measures, Greater Manchester) Lack of communication and understanding I had so many sanctions and I didn't know what they were for. I rang the lady, it took about two weeks actually for this actual lady to actually ring me back (Female Universal Credit claimant, Greater Manchester)

Support Negative experiences of support widespread 10 Negative experiences of support widespread They should be focusing on getting you a job so you'd never have to worry about sanctions. Because it's called the Jobcentre not the Sanctioncentre. You know what I mean? (Male Universal Credit claimant, Greater Manchester) Some good practice is evident – but variation across geographical areas, providers, advisors, etc. What it is, I think you've got one person thinks he's better than the rest, and that's it, you're getting sanctioned. It's like sometimes when you go in there, some of them will talk to you like a piece of rubbish... it just depends what side of the bed they get out, if you ask me…The one I've got now, [name of advisor] touch wood, he's been really nice with me (Male Universal Credit claimant, Greater Manchester)

Behaviour change 11 A stated aim of conditionality is positive behaviour change to: prepare for or find paid work maintain and advance in paid work encourage responsible behaviour Assumption that positive behaviour amongst target groups is not possible without coercion …

Behaviour change 12 Virtually all welfare service user interviewees expressed the desire for the types of positive behaviour intended You want to find work. You want to save up for things…you want a better standard of living. Working is the only way you can do it (Male Universal Credit claimant, Greater Manchester) Limited evidence of welfare conditionality bringing about behaviour change They think, because they've slapped me with an ASBO, they think that I'm going to behave. But I'm not…Because they're doing it wrong. The conditions that I've got on that ASBO, it's unbelievable (Male subject to ASB measures, Greater Manchester) Fear factor anxiety

Behaviour change 13 Rare that conditionality worked to move people closer to the labour market Well, I want a job so I'd carry on doing what I'm doing anyway…It's not as if, if you don't get a sanction you're not going to do anything about getting a job…I want a job, so give me a job, I will go on it, I will for my own sanity (Female Universal Credit claimant, Greater Manchester) Behaviour change to comply with process at the expense of outcome [A] company wanted an HGV driver right I had to apply for that but I don't drive. Now where's the logic there do you know what I mean?...I applied for everything that was there just to prove to them that I'm applying for it. You're never going to get the job (Male Universal Credit claimant, Greater Manchester) Fear factor anxiety

Ethics - Support for conditionality? 14 Broad support for the principle of welfare conditionality (i.e. ‘rights’ being linked to ‘responsibilities’) You can't just take out of the system and expect not to put nothing back in ourselves, do you know what I mean? (Male subject to ASB measures, Greater Manchester) But … this did not mean uncritical acceptance - widespread concern around: Inappropriate application Questions of deserving and undeserving Lack of personalisation

Ethics - Inappropriate application 15 Concerns around the extension of conditionality to previously exempt ‘groups’ (e.g. disabled people, lone parents) They've just sent me a letter saying that basically they want me off ESA and back on JSA...It's pretty worrying actually. I can't go on JSA when I'm on this treatment. I can't get out of the house let alone go look for work (Male ESA claimant subject to ASB measures, Greater Manchester) Concerns around ‘in-work’ (counter-productive) conditionality I got this second sanction for like a week. Now I'm working [temporarily]…What they do is they pigeonhole it and then when I actually do start claiming Universal Credit again then suddenly they'll make this one week sanction (Male Universal Credit claimant, Greater Manchester)

Ethics - Questions of deserving and undeserving 16 Many WSUs assert their entitlement by stating that welfare conditionality is fair when applied to other ‘undeserving’ groups (e.g. migrants, ‘druggies’, people ‘on the sick’) They've let [in] all these foreign people…the Government should have helped us English people first, who were here, then started letting people in. Not let people in first and then think, 'Oh, my God, what are we going to do now?' (Male ESA claimant subject to ASB measures, Greater Manchester) It gets a bit ridiculous, especially when I can stand at my kitchen window and see all the drug dealers walking past who never seem to get pulled up about why they've never had a job in 35 years (Male Universal Credit claimant, Greater Manchester) Everyone has their own legitimating position/frame contributing to discourses around ‘deservedness’

Ethics - Personalised approach to welfare conditionality 17 A need to treat people as human beings They don't really look at the person, they just think, oh, I'll mark him off. Do you know what I mean? (Male JSA claimant, Greater Manchester) One size fits all approach seen as flawed and unfair – need a more personalised approach reflecting people’s needs, capabilities and responsibilities outside the paid labour market [You mention what you've done in the past and then you say what you've actually done to look for work...There's no real, ‘well could you do this? Could you do that?’. It's ‘you're doing this’ (Male Universal Credit claimant, Greater Manchester,

Part 3: Next steps for the project 18 Part 3: Next steps for the project

Next steps 19 Qualitative Longitudinal Research (QLR) Wave B nearly complete – preparing for Wave C (final wave) Wave A findings available on website Series of events to launch Wave A findings London (12th May 2016) Glasgow (9th June 2016) Salford (17th June 2016, 12.30 – 4.30, MediaCityUK) Salford event Part of Making Research Count (MRC) Focusing specifically on the voices of Greater Manchester participants Speakers include: Sean Anstee Rebecca Long Bailey Malcolm Gardner (The Welfare Reform Club)

Thank you Project website: www.welfareconditionality.ac.uk Follow us on @WelCond For more information contact: Vici Armitage, Project Manager, vici.armitage@york.ac.uk