Political concerns and criticism of welfare sanctions have grown in recent years. Sanctions not only cause severe hardship to those affected, forcing many to rely on emergency support such as food banks, but they are also rightly seen as the often punitive microcosm of our social safety net. This has led to scrutiny of the effectiveness of sanctions, with a focus on what happens to those sanctioned.
However, despite being the mechanism that drives sanctions, conditionality (i.e. setting requirements that people must meet in order to keep their full benefit payments) has received much less scrutiny. Indeed, the need for conditionality is often seen as necessary, both politically and practically, to maintain the integrity and accountability of social security systems. When the validity of the sanctions was questioned, the DWP responded that the sanctions were necessary to ensure the validity of the attached conditions.
As a result, policy debates and developments in this area are very narrow.Sanctions can (and should) be less severe or longer in duration, and conditions can be more stringent ‘“personalize” to reflect someone’s specific circumstances. These changes, likely to reduce the incidence and impact of sanctions, would be an important and welcome step forward. However, they are important in addressing the broader negative impact of conditionality powerless.
While approximately 6% of those eligible for sanctions at any given time (more than 100,000 individuals) will be sanctioned, the threat of sanctions creates stress and anxiety for many more. This undermines the current or future sense of financial security people get from already inadequate benefits. But conditionality also fundamentally undermines the quality of people’s relationships with employment support — driving compliance when what is needed is genuine engagement. This leads to bad experiences and bad results.
This article lays out why the current system of conditionality is both ineffective and damaging, and how alternatives can benefit not only people’s financial security and well-being, but also their prospects of finding well-paying, secure, and fulfilling employment.
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