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Dr James Kaufman's Outputs (12)

‘The scales never seem to balance’: exploring the lived realities of poverty during the UK ‘cost-of-living crisis’ through participatory research (2025)
Journal Article

Since late 2021, the term ‘cost-of-living crisis’, indicating decreased disposable incomes, has gained prominence in the UK. This study draws on the long-running online participatory research project Changing Realities, involving over 100 low-income... Read More about ‘The scales never seem to balance’: exploring the lived realities of poverty during the UK ‘cost-of-living crisis’ through participatory research.

Where's the credit? (2023)
Report

Universal Credit (UC) is harmful to the mental health of claimants and has a particularly detrimental impact on the mental health of lone parents, creating stress, anxiety and financial hardship. This rapid response briefing shares findings from the... Read More about Where's the credit?.

Keeping Warm This Winter (2023)
Report
Kaufman, J., Patrick, R., Aldridge, H., Jordan, U., Pybus, K., & Power, M. (2023). Keeping Warm This Winter. Changing Realities

The rapid escalation in energy prices creates particular challenges for families with dependent children living on a low-income. Families need to keep their children warm this winter. However, with household budgets stretched to breaking point, they... Read More about Keeping Warm This Winter.

Lockdown isn't over for us all (2022)
Report
Warnock, R., Page, G., Patrick, R., Kaufman, J., & Kingdom, S. (2022). Lockdown isn't over for us all. Changing Realities

This short report sets out some of the specific ways in which the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted low-income families who have children with additional needs. Drawing on participatory research with Covid Realities participants, combined with survey da... Read More about Lockdown isn't over for us all.

A Year Like No Other (2022)
Book
Patrick, R., Power, M., Garthwaite, K., Kaufman, J., Page, G., & Pybus, K. (2022). A Year Like No Other. Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.51952/9781447364719

Telling the stories of low-income families, this book exposes the ways that pre-existing inequalities, insecurities and hardships were amplified during the pandemic in the UK and offers key policy recommendations for change.

Every day is a struggle: Life at the sharp end of the cost-of-living crisis (2022)
Report
Kaufman, J., Page, G., Aldridge, H., Pybus, K., & Patrick, R. (2022). Every day is a struggle: Life at the sharp end of the cost-of-living crisis. Covid Realities

Covid Realities was launched in April 2020 to document the experiences of parents and carers living on low incomes during the pandemic. While the project was due to end in December 2021 (with our final report published in January 2022), the scale of... Read More about Every day is a struggle: Life at the sharp end of the cost-of-living crisis.

Post-pandemic futures: Social security reimagined (2021)
Report
Kaufman, J., Patrick, R., & Power, M. (2021). Post-pandemic futures: Social security reimagined. Covid Realities

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated the shortcomings of the UK’s social security system. As we move out of the pandemic, there is a need to grasp this opportunity to debate and start planning for a new and better social security settlem... Read More about Post-pandemic futures: Social security reimagined.

States of Imposture: Scroungerphobia and the Choreography of Suspicion (2021)
Book Chapter
Kaufman, J. (2021). States of Imposture: Scroungerphobia and the Choreography of Suspicion. In The Imposter as Social Theory :Thinking with Gatecrashers, Cheats and Charlatans (171-190). Bristol University Press. https://doi.org/10.51952/9781529213102.ch008

Recent decades have witnessed the emergence of an international agenda to reorganize welfare states and their social security provisions around the ‘activation’ of benefit recipients, often in the form of ‘welfare-to-work’ programmes. In the United K... Read More about States of Imposture: Scroungerphobia and the Choreography of Suspicion.

Intensity, moderation, and the pressures of expectation: Calculation and coercion in the street‐level practice of welfare conditionality (2019)
Journal Article
Kaufman, J. (2019). Intensity, moderation, and the pressures of expectation: Calculation and coercion in the street‐level practice of welfare conditionality. Social Policy and Administration, 54(2), 205-218. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12559

This article offers a street-level perspective on welfare conditionality as it was practiced in contracted-out UK activation programs between 2008 and 2015. Drawing on observation and in-depth interviews, the article illustrates the ways that behavio... Read More about Intensity, moderation, and the pressures of expectation: Calculation and coercion in the street‐level practice of welfare conditionality.