Filling in the middle
The ‘workless’ frame in action in UK welfare reform
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13121586 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Laura Richards-Gray (0000-0001-9957-1249, Birkbeck, University of London, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 40-57 |
| Publication date | 2022-09-24 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | European Journal of Politics and Gender (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2515-1088 • E-ISSN: 2515-1096 |
| Publisher | Bristol University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1332/251510821x16613569438355 |
| OpenAlex | W4297038042 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 17 |
The gender-blind ‘workless’ frame has been increasingly prominent in UK welfare discourse in recent decades and has played a significant role in the political justification of Universal Credit – a key plank of UK welfare reform since 2013. Meanwhile, Universal Credit has been highlighted as problematic for gender equality. This article seeks to ‘fill in the middle’ between the use of the ‘workless’ frame in recent welfare discourse, including at the agenda-setting stage of Universal Credit, and the gendered implications of Universal Credit. It does this by analysing how the frame functions in government evaluation frameworks and impact assessments (including equality impact assessments), and in the implementation of Universal Credit (drawing on secondary analysis of interviews with claimants and focus groups with welfare practitioners). The analysis suggests that the ‘workless’ frame is promoting gender rowback by de-gendering welfare, devaluing care – particularly that performed by lone parents – and undermining the sharing of care in couple households
Action (physics · Economics · Frame (networking · Government (linguistics · Linguistics · Political science · Politics · Public economics · Sociology · Welfare · Welfare reform · Engineering · Healthcare innovation and challenges · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Political discourse and gendered welfare reform
Gender equality in the welfare state?
Ideas and Politics in Social Science Research
How ideas matter in public policy
Framing and the health policy process
Taking implementation seriously in assessing success
Responsibilising recovery
Universal Credit
What Adult Worker Model? A Critical Look at Recent Social Policy Reform in Europe from a Gender and Family Perspective
From social security to individual responsibility (Part Two)
Discourse, Discourse Everywhere
Universal Credit, gender and unpaid childcare
Telling stories of 21st century welfare
Policies and discourses of poverty during a time of recession and austerity
Institutional analysis and the role of ideas in political economy
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |