Policy Factory

Lessons From the Past for Policy Futures

Fraudulent Lives

Following the publication of Fraudulent Lives: Imagining Welfare Cheats from the Poor Law to the Present in November 2024, Steven King has published the transcriptions of interviews and focus group meetings compiled as part of this project.

These resources are being shared under a CC BY-NC license which allows for users to share and use this research as long as they credit the author (Steven King).

Interview Transcripts

Interviews were conducted singly or jointly by Ms. Margaret Hanly or Steven King. Respondents were recruited initially from a cohort of personal contacts who had either been in receipt of benefits under different iterations of the welfare state or who had worked for the system itself. Subsequent snowballing occurred through word-of-mouth and the continuing contact of both interviewers with the core communities.

Transcripts of interviews prior to 2012 were conducted by Hanly and checked or edited by King. Thereafter transcripts were undertaken by King. All transcripts were made using standardised English unless there was a good reason not to. ‘Normal’ hesitations and circularities were not noted in the transcripts, but integral features of this sort were.

In line with ethical permissions and reflecting the potential impact of interviewees being identified by voice, original recordings are not available. All participants were given the opportunity to withdraw their interviews from the associated study and none chose to do this.

Standard questions for first set of interviews (PDF)

Interviews

Scanned Notes from Focus Group Meetings