As part of this research, some of the participants worked with an animator and myself to create a film about their experiences of welfare reform. This became known as the ‘Dole Animators’ project. A website was developed to accompany the project (www.doleanimators.org), for which each participant wrote a brief biography that captured their experiences of benefits and hopes for the future.

In his account, reprinted above, James mentions many of the themes explored in this book. He highlights the ways in which being on benefits carries negative associations and requires him to make difficult choices and sacrifices. His narrative explicitly challenges the notion popularised in political accounts of benefits as a lifestyle choice and hints at some of the hardship that welfare reform is causing. He powerfully illustrates the challenges of surviving on benefits while simultaneously hoping for a better future.

Individuals such as James were interviewed on three (sometimes four) occasions, enabling their experiences of out-of-work benefits to be tracked over time and the dynamic interactions between benefits receipt, relationships with paid employment and experiences of welfare reform to be captured. Popular notions of claimants ‘languishing on welfare’ (Duncan Smith, 2014a) and trapped in a ‘cycle of dependency’ (Cameron, 2014b) were critically examined and the extent of the (mis)match between these dominant representations and lived realities explored.