Contractual welfare ideology and housing management practice: the deployment of 'Tenant Incentive Schemes' in Australia

Tenant Incentive Schemes (TIS) is the generic term used to describe an additional tier of benefits such as rent subsidies and accelerated repair schemes made available specifically to tenants who meet the conditions of their tenancy agreement. This article is based on the findings of a research study that examined the deployment of TIS in Australia. It is argued that TIS, along with other similar housing management practices, are underpinned by a set of neo-liberal ideological discourses and that their promotion by policy makers is symptomatic of the move towards contractual forms of welfare delivery (the idea that entitlement is dependent on certain conditions relating to behaviour). The article's conclusion is that while TIS and other similar schemes might lead to some incremental improvements, they over-emphasise the transformative potential of welfare contractualism to assuage the negative impact of residualisation and neighbourhood decline. TIS are insufficient policy instruments to meet the contemporary challenges that confront the agencies managing public housing.