The benefit sanction: a correctional device or a weapon of disgust?

REDMAN, Jamie (2019). The benefit sanction: a correctional device or a weapon of disgust? Sociological Research Online.

[img]
Preview
PDF
Redman-BenefitSanctionCorrectional(AM).pdf - Accepted Version
All rights reserved.

Download (511kB) | Preview
Official URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1360...
Link to published version:: https://doi.org/10.1177/1360780419851132

Abstract

The benefit sanction is a dominant activation policy in Britain’s ‘welfare-to-work’ regime. While policymakers believe in their necessity to correct behaviour, research shows benefit sanctions cause additional harm to Britain’s marginalised groups. Drawing upon a small-scale qualitative study, this article first navigates new territory, mapping the ways stigma emerges from the state – channelled through the benefit sanction – and manifests in the lives of sanctioned claimants. Acknowledging wider evidence, the sanction is then argued to have failed as a correctional device. Rather, taking into account Britain’s current politico-economic climate, the sanction appears as a weapon used to incite negative emotion in an attempt to police the boundaries of the labour market, while frequently abandoning some of the UK’s most vulnerable citizens.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Sociology; 1608 Sociology
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1177/1360780419851132
SWORD Depositor: Symplectic Elements
Depositing User: Symplectic Elements
Date Deposited: 10 Jun 2019 15:16
Last Modified: 18 Mar 2021 05:10
URI: https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/24676

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics