Sanctions, support and behaviour change: understanding the role and impact of welfare conditionality

在英国，使用有条件的福利安排，结合了制裁和支持的元素，旨在“纠正”某些福利受助人的“问题”行为，现在已成为福利、住房、刑事司法和移民制度的既定组成部分。有一种强烈的主流政治共识支持附加条件，即许多福利权利越来越依赖于公民首先同意履行特定的强制性义务或经批准的行为模式。附加条件目前已纳入广泛的政策领域(包括失业津贴制度、家庭干预项目、街头无家可归干预、社会住房和庇护立法)，其使用范围正在扩大到以前获得豁免的群体，例如单亲父母和领取残疾津贴的人。然而，有关附带条件改变社会福利受助人的行为的好处和效用的假设，基本上仍未得到检验。这项计划有两个主要目标。首先，增进人们对附加条件在促进和维持不同福利受助人的行为改变方面的作用的理解。第二，考虑在什么情况下使用条件可能是道德正当的，也可能是不正当的。我们的目标是解决现有知识的差距，建立一个原始和全面的证据基础，以确定在一系列社会政策领域和不同的福利服务使用者群体中附加条件的有效性和合乎道德的情况。我们将使用一系列方法来实现这些目标。首先，我们将回顾相关文献、统计数据来源和政策文件。为了帮助了解和批判性地审问我们的方法，我们已争取到主要国际学者的参与，他们将参加在研究早期阶段召开的一系列专家小组研讨会。我们亦会与福利受助人和从业员举办“谘询工作坊”，以配合研究设计(这些工作坊将于研究接近尾声时再次举行，以反映新出现的研究结果)。在此之后，我们将对三组受访者进行实地调查：1.对40名精英决策者进行半结构化访谈；2.24个焦点小组(6-10名受访者)，与执行政策的前线福利从业者进行访谈；以及3.对400名有条件的福利受助人进行不同样本的定性纵向访谈。每个人将接受三次采访，总共接受1200次采访。精英访谈将探讨政策制定者引入有条件的福利政策的原因，以及他们对这些政策如何促进行为改变的理解。焦点小组将考虑前线从业者认为应该发生的事情(在道德上)，以及他们认为在实施条件时将会发生/确实发生的事情。对福利受助人的三轮重复的定性纵向访谈将提供一种有意义的方式来检查受条件制约的个人的转变、适应和应对策略，这些可能会随着时间的推移而改变，以及为什么不同的人可能会有不同的结果。实地考察将在英格兰和苏格兰的不同地点进行，包括伦敦、曼彻斯特、索尔福德、谢菲尔德、格拉斯哥和爱丁堡。这将使人们能够比较分析共享社会保障法与英格兰和苏格兰现有的住房、无家可归和刑事司法方面的不同政策和法律框架之间的相互作用。所有采访将被录音和转录(经允许)。然后，将分析产生的新数据，以探索政策制定者、前线工作人员和福利受助人之间的共性和差异。调查结果将向政策制定者、实践者、学术界和福利服务用户受众传播。

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 over time. Second, to consider the circumstances in which the use of conditionality may, or may not, be ethically justified. We aim to address gaps in existing knowledge by establishing an original and comprehensive evidence base on the efficacy and ethicality of conditionality across a range of social policy fields and diverse groups of welfare service users.We will use a range of methods to achieve these aims. Initially, we will review relevant literature, statistical data sources and policy documents. To help inform and critically interrogate our approach, we have secured the involvement of leading international scholars who will participate in a series of expert panel seminars convened in the early stages of the study. We will also conduct 'consultation workshops' with welfare recipients and practitioners to feed into research design (these workshops will be held again towards the end of the study to reflect on emerging findings). Following on from this we will undertake fieldwork with three sets of respondents:1. semi-structured interviews with 40 'elite' policymakers; 2. 24 focus groups (with 6-10 respondents) with frontline welfare practitioners who implement policy; and3. repeat qualitative longitudinal interviews with a diverse sample of 400 welfare recipients who are subject to conditionality. Each person will be interviewed three times giving a total of 1200 interviews.The elite interviews will explore the reasons why policymakers introduce conditional welfare policies and their understandings of how they might promote behavioural change. The focus groups will consider both what frontline practitioners think should happen (ethically) and what they think would/does happen (in practice) when conditionality is implemented. The three rounds of repeat qualitative longitudinal interviews with welfare recipients will provide a meaningful way to examine the transitions, adaptations and coping strategies of individuals subject to conditionality, how these may change over time, and why there may be diverse outcomes for different people. Fieldwork will take place in a variety of locations in England and Scotland, including the cities of London, Manchester, Salford, Sheffield, Glasgow and Edinburgh. This will allow for a comparative analysis of the interplay between shared social security law and the different policy and legal frameworks on housing, homelessness and criminal justice that exist in England and Scotland. All interviews will be audio recorded and transcribed (with permission). The new data generated will then be analysed to explore commonalities and differences between the perspectives of policymakers, frontline workers and welfare recipients. Findings will be disseminated to policymaker, practitioner, academic and welfare service user audiences.