Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Welfare to work scheme debated in public lecture
Professor Webster's lecture will discuss the research behind his recent co-authored book, 'Poverty and insecurity: Life in low-pay, no-pay Britain', and the current and likely future of welfare to work. The lecture will take place at 5.30pm in the Rose Bowl.
Professor Webster explains: "The welfare to work scheme assumes that work is the best route out of poverty and that hard-working families will benefit and prosper by their own work efforts. Our research has tested whether work does in fact redeem poverty over years, asking people about their lives as they cycled between work and welfare. We also interviewed an older age group as well as third and second generation 'workless' households, to include experiences of work and welfare over the whole lifespan."
The research has shown that people faced with low-waged and insecure work, though resilient and motivated, are channelled not out of - but into - poverty.
Professor Webster will ask, in his lecture, why welfare to work processes are incorrectly perceived by economists and politicians, allowing some sorts of lives and work to be devalued and others to be celebrated as 'wealth creating', and meaning that many are living with poor pay, insecurity and losing out on decent jobs and entitlements that allow them to be treated as equal citizens.
Professor Colin Webster leads the study of Criminology at Leeds Metropolitan University and is currently co-investigator and collaborator with Brunel and Middlesex Universities on a national study of young people's attitudes towards religious faith.
Please RSVP to eventsteam@leedsmet.ac.uk to attend the lecture.