Since the 1970s, mainstream politicians have been concerned with addressing what they have described as cultures of ‘welfare dependency’: the notion that for many people it has become the norm to ‘choose’ benefits receipt over paid work (Dean and Taylor-Gooby, 1992; Hills, 2015). Successive waves of welfare reform have sought to undermine this supposed ‘welfare dependency’ and ‘activate’ benefit claimants by introducing policies designed to support transitions from ‘welfare’ into ‘work’ (see Chapter Two). Measures introduced have included the increased and extended application of welfare conditionality and sanctions; changes to the eligibility conditions and levels of benefits; the development of new forms of back-to-work support; and policies designed to ‘make work pay’ by increasing the gap between the ‘rewards’ of benefits receipt and those of paid employment. Under Cameron's governments the mantle of welfare reform was taken forward with renewed vigour and zeal, with policy changes defended on the basis that they would help affected individuals to lead more responsible, independent lives as dutiful, hard-working citizens.

This chapter details dynamic experiences of welfare reform and maps the cumulative impact of such reform on individual lives. This provides a fluid, textured and rich picture of individual responses and experiences, which very often clash with the political narrative and policy framing. Individuals were variously affected by the migration of IB claimants onto ESA and the intensification and extension of welfare conditionality (including a ratcheting up of the severity and frequency of benefit sanctions). Experiences of the IB–ESA migration, increased conditionality and benefit sanctions are explored in turn, with individual case studies detailing how they were anticipated, experienced and responded to over time. This is followed by a summary of the ‘work’ and ‘costs’ associated with welfare reform, which can together be described as the ‘burden of welfare reform’. First, individuals’ expectations about welfare reform are discussed, illustrating how concern about future benefit changes seeps into and impinges upon individuals’ present lives.

Anticipating welfare reform

When the first interviews took place in 2011, many of the Coalition government's reforms were yet to be rolled out, but welfare reform and proposals to modernise the benefits system featured prominently in newspaper headlines and television news bulletins.