From social security to individual responsibility (Part Two): Writing off poor women's work in the Welfare Reform Act 2009

Abstract

This is the second paper of a 2-part article which draws on interdisciplinary feminist perspectives to critique New Labour's welfare reform agenda. Through examining the Welfare Reform Bill and the subsequent Welfare Reform Act 2009, the paper argues that the increased use of conditionality and sanctions in relation to female benefit claimants – particularly lone mothers – “writes-off” their caring and informal work and pushes these women into low-paid, highly gendered employment in a precarious labour market. Despite the gender neutral language of ‘lone parents’, the 2009 Act continues a classed and often racialised government tradition of targeting lone mothers in an attempt to privatise social issues, such as povertv and unemployment. Rather than alleviating child poverty and developing the employability skills of claimants – as maintained by the Government – welfare-to-work measures exacerbate the economic insecurities experienced by poor women and their families, restricts their autonomy in choosing work that is right for their family circumstances, and subjects them to ever-increasing degrees of surveillance and coercion.