‘We can’t believe you would just trust us’: why social assistance shouldn’t come with strings attached

By Neil Howard, Reader in International Development, University of Bath

When the authorities provide social assistance to those in need, it almost always comes with conditions attached. These include behavioural requirements or criteria determining who is and isn’t eligible for support.

Common examples include proving that you’re looking for a job, are too ill to do so, or that you fall into a particular category that policymakers have decided is worthy of aid – for example, working children or single parents.

This approach is problematic for at least three reasons. First, it can be ineffective, because targeted support like this often excludes…

Read complete article

~	From a colonial hill town to Idris Elba’s island masterplan: what do these Sierra Leone developments tell us about urban elites?

~	From a colonial hill town to Idris Elba’s island masterplan: what do these Sierra Leone developments tell us about urban elitism?

~	Haiti gangs crisis: Top rights expert decries attacks on hospitals

~	How a traumatic birth experience can affect breastfeeding

~	Meet the fungi that live in the sea

~	‘I was left with nothing.’ Why apprentices are being pushed into the informal economy

~	From a colonial hill town to Idris Elba’s island masterplan, what can two Sierra Leone developments a century apart tell us about urban elitism?

~	What is locked-in syndrome? The extraordinary stories that help us understand this rare condition

~	Wallace and Gromit: you’d never know it wasn’t Peter Sallis in Vengeance Most Fowl thanks to expert vocal mimicry

~	UK foreign policy: the top five priorities for 2025