Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- List of contributors
- one New Labour, ‘modernisation’ and welfare worker resistance
- two Strenuous welfarism: restructuring the welfare labour process
- three A ‘Third Way’? Industrial relations under New Labour
- four Acts of distrust? Support workers’ experiences in PFI hospital schemes
- five Control and resistance at the ward-face: contesting the nursing labour process
- six ‘I didn’t come into teaching for this!’: the impact of the market on teacher professionalism
- seven Ambiguities and resistance: academic labour and the commodification of higher education
- eight The paradox of ‘professionalisation’ and ‘degradation’ in welfare work: the case of nursery nurses
- nine Social work today: a profession worth fighting for?
- ten Working ‘for’ welfare in the grip of the ‘iron’ Chancellor: modernisation and resistance in the Department for Work and Pensions
- eleven Working in the non-profit welfare sector: contract culture, partnership, Compacts and the ‘shadow state’
- twelve Beyond New Labour: work and resistance in the ‘new’ welfare state
- Index
ten - Working ‘for’ welfare in the grip of the ‘iron’ Chancellor: modernisation and resistance in the Department for Work and Pensions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- List of contributors
- one New Labour, ‘modernisation’ and welfare worker resistance
- two Strenuous welfarism: restructuring the welfare labour process
- three A ‘Third Way’? Industrial relations under New Labour
- four Acts of distrust? Support workers’ experiences in PFI hospital schemes
- five Control and resistance at the ward-face: contesting the nursing labour process
- six ‘I didn’t come into teaching for this!’: the impact of the market on teacher professionalism
- seven Ambiguities and resistance: academic labour and the commodification of higher education
- eight The paradox of ‘professionalisation’ and ‘degradation’ in welfare work: the case of nursery nurses
- nine Social work today: a profession worth fighting for?
- ten Working ‘for’ welfare in the grip of the ‘iron’ Chancellor: modernisation and resistance in the Department for Work and Pensions
- eleven Working in the non-profit welfare sector: contract culture, partnership, Compacts and the ‘shadow state’
- twelve Beyond New Labour: work and resistance in the ‘new’ welfare state
- Index
Summary
Introduction
In his Budget Statement in March 2004 Chancellor Gordon Brown announced what many civil servants had long felt was just a formality: that the modernisation of the civil service would result in swingeing cuts in jobs across many government departments, especially, although not exclusively, those related to ‘welfare-focused’ services. Furthermore it became increasingly apparent that, despite media claims of a long-overdue cull of ‘bureaucrats in bowler hats’, a largely low-paid, increasingly angry group of workers would not only be at the frontline of delivering the central elements of New Labour's policy thrust in welfare reform, they would also bear the brunt of ‘efficiency’ drives to cut spending on public services.
Elsewhere in this book the key New Labour principle, that the ‘best welfare policy of all is work’ (Hutton, 2006), has been highlighted as pivotal to welfare reform. Yet, save their representation (alongside other public sector workers) as ‘wreckers’ (Blair, 2002) or as part of ‘the forces of conservatism’ (Blair, 1999, 2002), what are often overlooked are the very workers whose job it is to facilitate the transformation of welfare and public services. And all too often with fewer resources. A key aim of this chapter is to explore the impact of New Labour's attempt to drive down welfare costs on one group of workers at the very heart of service delivery: those in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
In this department, which counts Jobcentre Plus, the Pensions Service and the Child Support Agency among its ‘businesses’ (DWP, 2006a, p 1), it quickly became clear to workers that ‘releasing resources to the frontline’ (Gershon, 2004) would mean an unprecedented overall loss of 30,000 jobs in under four years and radical organisational, infrastructural and procedural changes. At the same time, government ministers and DWP bosses are increasingly charging these same workers with promoting ‘opportunity and independence for all through modern, customer-focused services … end[ing] child poverty by 2020 … [being part of] building a fair and inclusive society’ (DWP, 2006a, p 1).
In our view the study of this key group of workers gives us crucial insights into the central trajectories of welfare reform and the impact of New Labour policies on frontline workers.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- New Labour/Hard Labour?Restructuring and Resistance inside the Welfare Industry, pp. 209 - 232Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2007