Evidence, objectivity and welfare reform: a qualitative study of disability benefit assessments (original) (raw)

Background: Anti-welfare narratives depict welfare systems as overly-permissive, open to fraud, and fundamentally unfair. Countering these supposed ills have been political appeals to evidence and reforms made to disability benefit assessments under the banner of objectivity. But objectivity is a complex construct, which entails philosophical and political choices that tend to oppress, exclude and symbolically disqualify alternative perspectives. Aims and objectives: To examine reforms made to UK disability benefits assessments in the name of objectivity. Methods: Thematic analysis of 50 in-depth qualitative interviews with UK disability benefit claimants. Findings: Reforms made in pursuit of procedural objectivity reproduce existing social order, meaning claimants without personal, social and economic resources are less likely to succeed. Data reveal an increasingly detached and impersonal assessment process, set against a broader welfare landscape in which advocacy and support hav...