Thread by @dermotfeenan

Revealing recent work on benefits: Jobcentre staff exit due to dissatisfaction with the austerity landscape within which #UniversalCredit emerges, increasing managerialist forms of governance, & ideological shifts in social & public administration. bit.ly/2AYESUb

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The research by @KA_Garthwaite @joingold @mpmon, though based on a small sample, is valuable; not least because there’s little research on the practitioners responsible for implementation of #DWP policy, & it also reveals adverse impact on claimants.

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@PollardTom’s report for @Demos argues the DWP is institutionally & culturally incapable of making reforms needed to improve outcomes for the ill & disabled, or for ‘harder-to-help’ groups. Important insights into DWP culture. bit.ly/2sMcZdH

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Pollard suggests decoupling benefit conditionality from employment support & moving responsibility to help ‘harder-to-help’ groups from the DWP to other organisations including the departments for Health & Social Care and Education, local authorities & the 3rd sector.

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This latter proposal is contested by Kitty Jones bit.ly/2FSuG2C; arguing that the crisis in the system results from government policies, embedding of traditional prejudices about people experiencing poverty, & institutionalised discriminatory practices.

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Jones argues that an effect of the proposal may be to deprioritise, & reduce state funding for, social security; & comes at a time when the NHS has suffered underfunding. She adds that responsibility for budgeting for & administering welfare will be diffused.

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This echoes my own article ‘The Questionable Claims about Compassion by a Government Minister', assessing critically whether, given ideology, policy & practice, the current Minister or government can build a compassionate social security system. bit.ly/2mc9R8o

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And, history professors write separately about resonances between the current approaches to poverty in social security & those long-thought to be consigned to the past.
Pat Thane: bit.ly/2HoC6NF
@AlannahTomkins bit.ly/2MlTf9E

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The ideological significance, historical resonances, and practical effects of Universal Credit, especially with Brexit looming, means that this area of social security remains a core site for critical analysis and urgent political intervention.

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