ABSTRACT
‘Welfare-to-work’ has become a central focus of the neoliberal onslaught on the welfare state in the United Kingdom (UK). The UK government has created a hostile environment for benefit claimants through cuts to entitlements, demonisation of recipients and coercive measures to engender ‘labour market activation’. However, these ‘reforms’ have also resulted in the emergence of new networks and alliances of resistance. At the forefront have been mental health survivors, who have been compelled by this draconian turn in welfare policy to extend the focus of the survivor movement activism from abuses in the psychiatric system to those perpetrated in the name of ‘work cure’ and ‘psychocompulsion’ (Friedli & Stearn, 2015; 2016). Allies from the mental health professions have also played a significant role because of serious concerns about the ethical implications for practice of this policy agenda.
