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.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	neo-liberalism, housing management, Australia, governance, welfare contractualism
Research Division:	Human Society
Research Group:	Sociology
Research Field:	Applied sociology, program evaluation and social impact assessment
Objective Division:	Law, Politics and Community Services
Objective Group:	Government and politics
Objective Field:	Public services policy advice and analysis
UTAS Author:	Jacobs, K (Professor Keith Jacobs)
ID Code:	52330
Year Published:	2008
Web of Science® Times Cited:	11
Deposited By:	Sociology and Social Work
Deposited On:	2008-06-23
Last Modified:	2015-02-11
Downloads:	5 View Download Statistics