The Welfare Experiences project is a ground-breaking international study comparing how people experience benefits in Estonia, Hungary, Norway, Spain, and the UK. It looks at how policies shape those experiences and, more importantly, what needs to change.
Inclusion Scotland is proud to be a co-production partner, bringing disabled people’s lived experience in Scotland into the spotlight. In 2024, we ran focus groups with our members about claiming Universal Credit.
This report shares what they told us. These are real stories that we aim to use to push for a fairer, more respectful benefits system.
The Welfare Experiences project is an ambitious, innovative project comparing the experience of receiving benefits in five different countries: Estonia, Hungary, Norway, Spain and the UK.
The project will be one of the first international comparisons of the experiences of individuals receiving public benefits. We are looking at the nature of these experiences, how different policies affect them, and their impacts – with the aim of making welfare systems work better.
The project runs from 2023-28 and is both mixed-methods and coproduced – find out more by looking at the Work Packages page, which explains what we are doing.
Our pan-European team includes eight different research organisations and seven organisations that work with people with lived experience of claiming – you can find out more about the Team here.
The WelfareExperiences project receives €3m of funding from the UK Research & Innovation Guarantee [EP/Y024621/1], having been selected by the European Research Council.