The Impact of Welfare Conditionality on Experiences of Job Quality

This article contributes to emerging debates about how behavioural conditionality within welfare systems influences job quality. Drawing upon analysis of unique data from three waves of qualitative longitudinal interviews with 46 UK social security recipients (133 interviews), we establish that the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Work, employment and society employment and society, 2024-12, Vol.38 (6), p.1658-1679
Main Authors: Jones, Katy, Wright, Sharon, Scullion, Lisa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arbitration
Claimants
Employment
Interconnections
Interviews
Job characteristics
Job insecurity
Job leaving
Social security
Welfare
Welfare recipients
Work
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Summary:This article contributes to emerging debates about how behavioural conditionality within welfare systems influences job quality. Drawing upon analysis of unique data from three waves of qualitative longitudinal interviews with 46 UK social security recipients (133 interviews), we establish that the impact of welfare conditionality is so substantial that it is no longer adequate to discuss job quality without reference to its interconnections to the welfare system. More specifically, we identify how conditionality drives welfare recipients’ experience of four core dimensions of job quality: disempowering and propelling claimants towards inadequate pay, insecurity and poor employment terms, undermining multiple intrinsic characteristics of work and creating what we term a new ‘Work–Life–Welfare balance’. Instead of acting as a neutral arbitrator between jobseekers and employers, the welfare system is exposed as complicit in reinforcing one-sided flexibility through one-sided conditionality, by emphasising intensive job-seeking, while leaving poor-quality work provided by employers unchecked.
ISSN:0950-0170
1469-8722
DOI:10.1177/09500170231219677