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1 The Work Programme: Making Welfare Work? John David Jordan PhD 2016 The Work Programme: Making Welfare Work? John David Jordan A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Manchester Metropolitan University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology, the Manchester Metropolitan University Abstract This thesis provides a review of the United Kingdom’s ‘Work Programme’ as it was operating in 2014. The Work Programme was a welfare-to-work scheme rolled out nationally across mainland Britain in 2011. It was the flagship welfare programme of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government that was formed following the UK’s general election of 2010. Welfare-to- work, alternatively known as ‘workfare’, is an approach to welfare provision which, in theory, mandates strict ‘reciprocal activity’ in return for receiving state benefits. Welfare-to-work is also increasingly associated with ‘payment-by-results’ schemes operated by private ‘providers’. Welfare-to-work has been described by numerous theorists, politicians and social commentators as a positive and revolutionary transformation of the UK’s benefits system that will re-build long-term welfare claimants’ self-esteem, re-train them via ‘tailored help and support’, and subsequently re- integrate them into the active labour market. Such claims are also often associated with the belief that past welfare systems were too generous, thereby prompting the emergence of a pathological, intergenerational underclass. Welfare-to-work is therefore argued by many to be the best solution to a crisis of social exclusion, cultural degeneration and excessive national welfare costs. However, critics characterise welfare-to-work as an essential aspect of a ‘neoliberal’ crackdown on former social democratic states. Such critics claim that this New Right ‘hardening’ of welfare policy is designed to force the UK’s labour markets to adapt to conditions of global competitiveness, lower-wages, less rights, and onerously ‘flexible’ working conditions. This thesis explores these broad and seemingly contradictory themes in both theory and also practice. More specifically, it assesses the degree to which either of these competing claims could be said to be valid for the Work Programme as it was operating within two welfare-to-work centres in the north of England in May, 2014. The thesis is based on 68 interviews with Work Programme staff and ‘customers’, foodbank managers and one anti-workfare activist. In addition, it draws on full-time fieldwork conducted over four weeks in May 2014 within two Work Programme centres. The main findings are that the Work Programme did not support the long-term unemployed into work, but also that it did not act as a punitive forced work scheme. Rather, it provided only limited contact with, and support to, claimants, and was essentially pointless in terms of improving a claimant’s chances of finding work. Dedication: For my parents, who always worked. Acknowledgements: I would like to express my gratitude to the following people and organisations, each of whom helped me to complete this thesis: My supervisors, Dr Susie Jacobs and Dr Kathryn Chadwick, for their outstanding support and guidance; plus Dr Chris Porter, the Manchester Metropolitan University, the Department of Sociology (MMU), the Institute of Humanities and Social Science Research (MMU), the MMU catering and cleaning staff – often the only people I saw first thing in the morning, for a chat and a laugh - Tracey Fishwick, the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion, Professor Berthold Schoene, Professor Steve Miles, Professor Jenny Rowley, Professor Gary Pollock, Dr Anneke Meyer, Dr Christian Kleese, Jacqueline Eke, Kathleen Menzies, Deborah Bown, Helen Darby, Dr Anthony May, Dr Benedicte Brahic, Dr Patrick Williams, Becky Clarke, Caroline Cocker, Robert Cocker, Derek Jordan, Mavis Jordan, Joachim Jordan, Beren Jordan, Graham Trickey, Dr Ha Ngo, and my examiners, Professor Peter Dwyer and Dr Robert Ralphs. My especial gratitude goes to the participants, provider and Prime who offered their time, and/or opened their doors, to me, in a gracious spirit of openness, and of finding better answers to old problems. Contents: Chapter One: Introduction 1 1. General introduction……………………………………………... 1 2. Background………………………………………………………. 1 3. My interest in workfare…………………………………………... 3 4. The need for research…………………………………………….. 4 5. Research questions……………………………………………….. 5 6. The structure of the thesis………………………………………... 5 7. Work Programme regulations, procedures and operational practices…………………………………………………………... 7 8. Conclusion………………………………………………………... 16 Chapter Two: The Historical Development of Workfare in the United States and the United Kingdom 18 1. Introduction………………………………………………………. 18 2. The development of workfare in the United States……………… 19 3. The development of workfare in the United Kingdom…………... 34 4. Conclusion……………………………………………………….. 48 Chapter Three: Theories of Work, Welfare and Workfare 50 1. Introduction……………………………………………………… 50 2. ‘Where there is a beggar, there is a myth’: mythologies and collective representations in work and welfare………………….. 55 3. ‘A vagrant flays the skin of an opened hand’: theories of paradoxical failure……………………………………………….. 51 4. ‘The poor are the weak in the land’: The ‘Disciplinary Socialisation’ school……………………………………………... 65 5. ‘They walk the streets in shame’: the hysteresis theory of workfare………………………………………………………….. 72 6. ‘He who moves defeats poverty’: making claimants work for their dole versus ‘human capital’ approaches……………………. 73 7. ‘When a poor man walks on the streets no one greets him’: workfare and citizenship…………………………………………. 79 8. ‘Let the poor man die, let him not live’: structural poverty, discipline and exploitation……………………………………….. 85 9. Empirical studies of workfare…………………………………… 95 10. Conclusion………………………………………………………. 112 Chapter Four: Methods and Fieldwork 114 1. Introduction………………………………………………………. 114 2. Locating myself…………………………………………………... 114 3. Gathering data……………………………………………………. 116 4. Fieldwork methodology………………………………………….. 120 5. Fieldwork in practice…………………………………………….. 125 6. Conducting analysis……………………………………………… 142 7. Ethics…………………………………………………………….. 143 8. Conclusion……………………………………………………….. 146 Chapter Five: Views and Attitudes of Staff and Customers 147 1. Introduction………………………………………………………. 147 2. General opinions regarding the Work Programme………………. 148 3. Being referred……………………………………………………. 151 4. The perceived causes of unemployment…………………………. 153 5. Health Matters…………………………………………………… 156 6. Are long-term benefits claimants ‘skivers?’ ……………………. 158 7. Have the long-term unemployed have ceased active job seeking? 161 8. Employment is available, if only people are prepared to take it?... 163 9. Are benefits are too generous? ....................................................... 165 10. Are benefits linked with crime? ..................................................... 167 11. Conclusion………………………………………………………... 169 Chapter Six: Day-to-Day Operating Practices 173 1. Introduction………………………………………………………. 173 2. Review interviews………………………………………………... 173 3. ‘Job club.’………………………………………………………… 186 4. Training…………………………………………………………... 190 5. Administrative requirements……………………………………... 193 6. Conclusion………………………………………………………... 195 Chapter Seven: The ‘Anti-Workfare’ Narrative, and ‘Behind the Scenes’ of Welfare-to-Work. 199 1. Introduction………………………………………………………. 199 2. Does bullying occur? ……………………………………………. 200 3. Is the Work Programme a free labour scheme? …………………. 202 4. Parking and creaming…………………………………………….. 205 5. Sanctions…………………………………………………………. 206 6. ‘Life triage.’……………………………………………………… 212 7. An integrated approach across services? ………………………… 214 8. The problem of falling caseloads………………………………… 215 9. ‘Zero-work self-employment.’…………………………………… 216 10. Different measures of ‘success.’…………………………………. 218 11. Staff stresses and staff security…………………………………... 222 12. Leaving the programme………………………………………….. 226 13. Conclusion……………………………………………………….. 227 Chapter Eight: Discussion of Findings 230 1. Introduction………………………………………………………. 230 2. The primary ‘for’ and ‘against’ narratives, and the UK government’s workfare policy rationale…………………………. 230 3. What the data show………………………………………………. 233 4. Conclusion………………………………………………………... 257 Chapter Nine: Conclusion 261 1. Introduction………………………………………………………. 261 2. Contribution to knowledge……………………………………….. 261 3. Avenues for future research……………………………………… 262 4. Policy recommendations…………………………………………. 263 5. Final comments…………………………………………………... 264 Appendices 267 Appendix I: Ethics forms………………………………………………… 267 Appendix II: Semi-Structured Interview Questions……………………… 275 Appendix III: Participant Information Sheet and Consent Forms……….. 278 Appendix IV: Nvivo Coding Nodes……………………………………... 281 Bibliography…………………………………………………………….. 291 List of acronyms used in this thesis: AFDC Aid for Families with Dependent Children. ALMP Active Labour Market Policies. CESI Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion. CETA Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. CWA Civil Work Administration. CWTP Community Work and Training Program. DWP Department for Work and Pensions. ESA Employment and Support Allowance. ET Employment Training (scheme). FERA Federal Emergency Relief Administration. FND Flexible New Deal. GAIN Greater Avenues for Independence. HMRC Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. HTC Help Towards Work. IMF International Monetary Fund. JCP Jobcentre Plus. JOBS Job
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