Carrots and sticks

I see from the latest Touchbase that :-

“Sanctions are applied as a last resort and recent research shows that 72 per cent of claimants say that they are more likely to follow the rules if there is a risk that their benefit could be stopped.”

...which by my calculations leaves a surprising 28% of claimants who are not more likely to follow the rules, even if their benefit could be stopped.

There’s a challenge for you, IDS.

lol, the title made me think of my horse… who shuts down when seeing a stick (particularly a lunging whip) and would kill for a carrot (or, better still, a spearmint treat by Spillers)

more seriously, positive reinforcement is shown to be much more beneficial in every way than negative reinforcement, and sanctions are negative reinforcement with knobs on.

They will just trot out the old line that the “28% arent bothered, cos we all know everyone on the dole is fiddling and workin’ on the side”