Poverty, Deregulation of the Labour Market and Benefit Fraud

Abstract
This paper presents the results of a focus groups exercise conducted in Belfast. The research explored the interaction of cuts and adjustments in the benefit system, deregulation of the labour market and increases in rents in the public sector. The results of the research suggest that these policies in combination have had the unanticipated consequence of making working while claiming benefit more attractive, and that the measures announced in the 1994 budget to encourage claimants to take low paid work are unlikely to have any significant effect.