Inclusion for All or Exclusion for Everyone? UK Unemployment Policies in the Age of Austerity

Journal title SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO
Author/s Alessio Bertolini
Publishing Year 2021 Issue 2021/159
Language English Pages 19 P. 133-151 File size 212 KB
DOI 10.3280/SL2021-159007
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Whilst the comparative political economy literature has regarded the UK as among the least dualised countries when it comes to non-standard employment, thanks to its flexible labour market and predominantly means-tested system of social pro-tection, scholars in the precariousness literature have highlighted the increased pre-carity and insecurity of many non-standard workers, highlighting the extreme con-ditionality and punitive policies typical of the UK welfare system as an important contributory factor. This paper aims to bridge the gap between these literatures. It analyses the experience of social protection of a specific category of non-standard workers, namely temporary agency workers, in accessing both active and passive unemployment policies. It finds how welfare reforms introduced in the past two decades in association with a general welfare discourse centred on the concepts of deservingness and dependency have created important barriers in accessing un-employment protection, not just based on institutional features but also on social perceptions.

Keywords: Dualisation, austerity, unemployment policies, UK

  1. Barbieri P. (2009). Flexible Employment and Inequality in Europe. European Sociological Review, 25(6): 621-628.
  2. Bentolila L., Dolado J. and Jimeno J. (2012). Reforming an Insider-Outsider Labor Market: The Spanish Experience. IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, 1(1): 1-29.
  3. Boeri T., Garibaldi, P. (2007). Two Tier Reforms of Employment Protection: Honeymoon Effect?. The Economic Journal, 117: F357-F385.
  4. Briken K., Taylor P. (2018). Fulfilling the ‘British way’: beyond constrained choice – Amazon workers’ lived experiences of workfare. Industrial Relations Journal, 49(5-6): 438-458.
  5. Bryman A. (2004). Social Research Methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  6. Buss C., Ebbinhaus B. and Naumann E. (2017). Making Deservingness of the Unemployed Conditional: Changes in Public Support for the Conditionality of Unemployment Benefits. In: van Oorschot W., Roosma F., Meuleman B. and Reeskens T., eds., The Social Legitimacy of Targeted Welfare: Attitudes to Welfare Deservingness. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar: 167-185.
  7. Clasen J. (2003). Towards a New Welfare State or Reverting to Type? Some Major Trends in British Social Policy since the Early 1980s. The European Legacy, 8(5): 573-586.
  8. Clasen J. (2007). Distribution of Responsibility for Social Security and Labour Market Policy, Country Report: The United Kingdom. Working Papers Number 07/50. Stirling: Stirling University.
  9. Clasen J., Goerne A. (2011). Exit Bismarck, Enter Dualism? Assessing Contemporary German Labour Market Policy. Journal of Social Policy, 40(4): 795-810.
  10. Clegg D. (2010). Labour Market Policy in The Crisis: the UK in Comparative Perspective. Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 18(1): 5-17.
  11. Davidsson J., Naczyk M. (2009). The ins and outs of dualisation: a literature review. Working Papers on the Reconciliation of Work and Welfare in Europe. REC-WP 02/2009. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, Publication and Dissemination Centre (PUDISCwowe).
  12. DiPrete T.A., Goux D., Maurin E. and Quesnel-Vallee A. (2006). Work and Pay in Flexible and Regulated Labor Markets: A Generalized Perspective on Institutional Evolution and Inequality Trends in Europe and the U.S.. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 24: 311-332.
  13. Dwyer P. (2004). Creeping Conditionality in the UK: From Welfare Rights to Conditional Entitlements?. The Canadian Journal of Sociology, 29(2): 265-287.
  14. Edmiston D., Patrick R. and Garthwaite K. (2017). Introduction. Austerity, Welfare and Social Citizenship. Social Policy & Society, 16(2): 253-259.
  15. Edmiston D. (2017). Welfare, Austerity and Social Citizenship in the UK. Social Policy & Society, 16(2): 261-270.
  16. Eichhorst W., Marx P. (2010). Whatever Works: Dualisation in the Service Economy in Bismarckian Welfare States. IZA Discussion Papers, 5035. Bonn: IZA Institute of Labour Economics.
  17. Emmenegger P., Häusermann S., Palier B. and Seeleib-Kaiser M. (2012). The Age of Dualization. The Changing Face of Inequality in Deindustrializing Societies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  18. Esping-Andersen G., Regini M., eds. (2001). Why Deregulate Labour Markets. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  19. Fletcher D.R., Flint J. (2018). Welfare conditionality and social marginality: The folly of the tutelary state?. Critical Social Policy, 38(4): 771-791.
  20. Fraser N., Gutièrrez R. and Peña-Casas R. (2011). Working Poverty in Europe. A Comparative Approach. Houndsmill: Palgrave Macmillan.
  21. Garthwaite K. (2011). ‘The language of shirkers and scroungers?’ Talking about illness, disability and coalition welfare reform. Disability & Society, 26(3): 369-372.
  22. GOV.UK (2015). JobSeeker’s Allowance (JSA), Government of the United Kingdom Website, -- Available at: www.gov.uk/jobseekers-allowance/overview
  23. GOV.UK (2017). Universal Credit, Government of the United Kingdom Website, -- Available at: www.gov.uk/universal-credit
  24. Green F. (2006). Demanding Work: The Paradox of Job Quality in the Affluent Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  25. Grimshaw D., Rubery J. (2012). The End of the UK’s Liberal Collectivist Social Model? The Implications of the Coalition Government’s Policy During the Austerity Crisis. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 36(1): 105-126.
  26. Hood A., Norris Keiller A. (2014). A Survey of the GB Benefit System. IFS Briefing Note BN13. London: Institute for Fiscal Studies.
  27. Kalleberg A.L. (2013). Good Jobs, Bad Jobs: The Rise of Polarized and Precarious Employment Systems in the United States 1970s tos 2000s. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
  28. Kalleberg A.L. (2014). Measuring Precarious Work, Working Paper, Chicago, The Employment Instability, Family Well-being, and Social Policy Network (EINet).
  29. Larsen C.A., Dejgaard T.E. (2013). The Institutional Logic of Images of the Poor and Welfare Recipients: A Comparative Study of British, Swedish and Danish Newspapers. Journal of European Social Policy, 23(3): 287-299.
  30. Lindsay C. (2004). The United Kingdom’s ‘Work First’ Welfare State and Activation Regimes in Europe. In: Serrano Pascual A., Magnusson L., eds., Reshaping Welfare States and Activation Regimes in Europe. Oxford: Peter Lang.
  31. MacLeavy J. (2011). A ‘new politics’ of austerity, workfare and gender? The UK coalition government's welfare reform proposals. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 4(3): 355-367.
  32. Morris L. (2016). The moral economy of austerity: analysing UK welfare reform. The British Journal Of Sociology, 67(1): 97-117.
  33. OECD (2013). Indicators of Employment Protection, The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Website. -- Available at: www.oecd.org/els/emp/oecdindicatorsofemploymentprotection.htm
  34. Palier B., Thelen K. (2010). Institutionalizing Dualism: Complementarities and Change in France and Germany. Politics & Society, 38(1): 19-148.
  35. Reeves A., Loopstra R. (2017). ‘Set up to Fail’? How Welfare Conditionality Undermines Citizenship for Vulnerable Groups. Social Policy and Society, 16(2): 327-338.
  36. Richards L., Morse J. (2007). Read me First for a User's Guide to Qualitative Methods. London: Sage.
  37. Schildrick T., Macdonald R., Webster C. and Garthwaite K. (2012). Poverty and Insecurity. Life in low-pay, no-pay Britain. Bristol: The Policy Press.
  38. Seeleib-Kaiser M., Adam Saunders A. and Naczyk M. (2011). Social Protection Dualism, De-Industrialization and Cost Containment, Comparing European Workers Part B: Policies and Institutions. Research in the Sociology of Work, 22(2): 83-118.
  39. Seeleib-Kaiser M., Adam Saunders A. and Naczyk M. (2012). Shifting the Public-Private Mix, A New Dualization of Welfare?. In: Emmenegger P., Häusermann S., Palier B., and Seeleib-Kaiser M., eds., The Age of Dualization. The Changing Face of Inequality in Deindustrializing Societies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  40. Silver C., Lewis A. (2014). Using Software in Qualitative Research: A Step-by-Step Guide. London: Sage.
  41. Standing G. (2011). The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
  42. Taylor-Gooby P., Larsen T.P. (2004). The UK – A Test Case for the Liberal Welfare State?. In: Taylor-Gooby P., ed., New Risks, New Welfare: The Transformation of the European Welfare State. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  43. Thelen K. (2014). Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  44. Vosko L.F., Zukevich N. and Cranford C. (2003). Precarious Jobs: A New Typology of Employment. Perspectives on Labour and Income, 4(10): 16-26.
  45. Wiggan J. (2012). Telling Stories of 21st Century Welfare: The UK Coalition Government and the Neo-Liberal Discourse of Worklessness and Dependency. Critical Social Policy, 32(3): 383-405.
  46. Wright S., Fletcher D.R., Stewart A. (2020). Punitive benefit sanctions, welfare conditionality and the social abuse of unemployed people in Britain: transforming claimants into offenders?. Social Policy and Administration, 54(2): 278-294. -- https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12577
  47. Yoon Y., Chung H. (2016). New Forms of Dualization? Labour Market Segmentation Patterns in the UK from the Late 90s Until the Post-crisis in the Late 2000s. Social Indicators Research, 128(2): 609-631.

Alessio Bertolini, Inclusion for All or Exclusion for Everyone? UK Unemployment Policies in the Age of Austerity in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO " 159/2021, pp 133-151, DOI: 10.3280/SL2021-159007