'The Impact of Universal Credit rollout on homelessness in Local Authorities in Scotland and England'

“在苏格兰地方当局的福利系统中，普遍信贷对无家可归者的影响可以对一个国家无家可归者的普遍性、性质和原因产生深远的影响。”“自由主义”福利制度产生了更高程度的贫困不平等，往往会在结构性上造成更大的无家可归现象。相反，产生低水平贫困和不平等的“社会民主”福利制度往往有较低的无家可归率，那些无家可归的人往往是由于复杂的个人问题（例如精神疾病和/或成瘾）而不是结构性原因。通用信贷是英国政府十年来最重要的福利改革，被描述为福利制度“60年来最激进的改革”。凭借其“无处不在的条件性”，通用信贷可以说是英国惩罚性“激活转向”的缩影，并比以往任何时候都更深入地转向“自由”福利制度。有人担心，由于1)漫长的等待期，2)增加的条件，3)每月直接支付，4)福利慷慨的变化，5)支付到一个银行账户，以及6)私人房东不愿出租给通用信贷申请人，通用信贷的引入将导致无家可归者增加。这项博士研究旨在评估通用信贷对苏格兰地方当局无家可归者援助需求的影响。跨区域固定效应回归模型将用于每月地方政府无家可归统计数据（2012-2018），以评估通用信贷推出与法定无家可归率、住房选择方法率、无家可归申请的引用原因以及无家可归申请人的特征之间的关联。

'The Impact of Universal Credit rollout on Homelessness in Scottish Local Authorities' Welfare systems can have a profound impact upon the prevalence, nature and causes of homelessness in a country. 'Liberal' welfare regimes that produce higher levels of poverty inequality tend to have a greater homelessness prevalence that occurs structurally. Conversely, 'social democratic' welfare regimes that produce low levels of poverty and inequality tend to have a lower homelessness prevalence and those who are homeless tend to be so due to complex personal problems (e.g. mental illness and/or addiction) rather than structural causes. Universal Credit is the UK government's flagship welfare reform of the decade and has been describes as the welfare system's 'most radical shake up for 60 years'. With its 'ubiquitous conditionality', Universal Credit arguably epitomises the UK's punitive 'activation turn', and takes the shift to a 'liberal' welfare regime further than ever before. There are concerns that the introduction of Universal Credit will drive up homelessness due to 1) long wait periods, 2) increased conditionality, 3) monthly direct payments, 4) changes to benefit generosity, 5) payment into a single bank account, and 6) unwillingness of private landlords to let to Universal Credit claimants. This PhD study seeks to assess the impact of Universal Credit rollout on homelessness assistance need in Scottish Local Authorities. Cross-area fixed effects regression models will be used on monthly Local Authority homelessness statistics (2012-2018) to evaluate associations between Universal Credit rollout and statutory homelessness rates, housing options approach rates, the cited reasons for homelessness applications and the characteristics of homelessness applicants.