Six - Exploring out-of-work benefit claimants’ attitudes towards welfare reform and conditionality

Summary

Introduction

In the May 2015 UK general election, confounding both the party's own expectations and the predictions of the pollsters, the Conservative Party returned to government, winning a parliamentary majority for the first time since 1992. During the election campaign, senior Conservatives pledged to continue their programme of welfare reform by cutting a further £12 billion from the annual ‘welfare bill’ (Syal, 2015). This approach appeared to win support from the public, with attitudinal surveys consistently showing enthusiasm for tough measures to address the ‘problem’ of a presumed ‘welfare dependency’ among many of those reliant on out-of-work benefits (Taylor-Gooby, 2015).

Public attitudes to ‘welfare’ need to be understood against the context of mainstream politicians’ continued stereotyping and stigmatising of benefit claimants and the apparently endless growth in what some have termed ‘Poverty Porn’ (Jensen, 2014; Tyler, 2014a); television shows such as ‘Benefits Street’ that promise to show the ‘reality’ of what being on benefits entails. Combined with much of tabloid media's continued vilification of out-of-work benefit claimants, there is today a climate of hostility and suspicion towards those relying on out-of-work benefits. This climate creates a backdrop against which further reforms to social security often seem to be justified, even welcomed by the public, and regarded as politically necessary and desirable (Kellner, 2013).

While we hear a great deal about what needs to be done to out-ofwork benefit claimants to make them responsible, hard working citizens (see Cameron, 2012; Duncan Smith, 2014), we hear rather less about their own attitudes and perspectives on the overarching direction of welfare reform. Drawing on findings from a study of out-of-work benefit claimants’ experiences of welfare reform, this chapter explores whether and how far benefit claimants can see a logic for changes to the benefits system. Following an overview of the dominant narrative on ‘welfare’ and a brief summary of public attitudes towards ‘welfare’, the methods utilised in the study are introduced. The attitudinal findings are then explored, looking at broad positioning on welfare reform, attitudes to welfare conditionality and the extent of a related political disengagement in turn. A concluding discussion considers the possible explanations for the attitudes uncovered, and reflects on the implications of these attitudes for any future challenges to the status quo.