Study title

The project undertook fieldwork with three sets of respondents: semi-structured interviews with 52 key informants/policy stakeholders (not included in archive for anonymity reasons), 27 focus groups with frontline welfare practitioners who implement policy; and repeat qualitative longitudinal interviews with a diverse sample of 481 welfare service users (WSU) who were subject to conditionality. Each person was invited to interview three times. WSU were sampled to inform 9 different policy areas (ASB / Disability / Ex-Offenders/ Homelessness / Jobseeking / Lone Parents / Migrants / Social Housing / Universal Credit). The fieldwork took place in a range of cities across England and Scotland. For further details about the context and methods of Welfare Conditionality, please see www.welfareconditionality.ac.uk.In the UK the use of conditional welfare arrangements that combine elements of sanction and support which aim to 'correct' the 'problematic' behaviour of certain welfare recipients are now an established part of welfare, housing, criminal justice and immigration systems. A strong mainstream political consensus exists in favour of conditionality, whereby many welfare entitlements are increasingly dependent on citizens first agreeing to meet particular compulsory duties or patterns of approved behaviour. Conditionality is currently embedded in a broad range of policy arenas (including unemployment benefit systems, family intervention projects, street homelessness interventions, social housing, and asylum legislation) and its use is being extended to cover previously exempt groups e.g. lone parents and disability benefit recipients. However, assumptions about the benefits and usefulness of conditionality in changing the behaviour of social welfare recipients remain largely untested. This project has two key aims. First, to advance understanding about the role of conditionality in promoting and sustaining behaviour change among a diversity of welfare recipients...