'The sanctions are good for some people but not for someone like me who actually genuinely does their job search.' British JSA claimant views on punitive welfare reform: hegemony in action?

This article shows that the unemployed are broadly supportive of welfare reforms which have led to increased poverty; exacerbated ill health and led some to engage in 'survival crime' or to disengage from the social security system. This support is predicated on the perceived need to discipline 'undeserving' groups; principally the feckless, those gaming the system and migrants. The authors argue that this reflects the success of a 'two nations' hegemonic project that has sought to legitimise an ongoing phase of capitalist development characterised by the removal of social protections, widening inter-class inequalities, and the implementation of punitive welfare reforms to submit the unemployed to insecure poverty labour. This article makes a significant original contribution to the field by demonstrating that the resonance of the 'two nations' hegemonic project resides in both its relatability to lived experiences of the unemployed and its tendency to cast a stigmatising threat over their out-of-work status.