Between empowerment and self-discipline. Money management training in the practice of social work in Poland
Between empowerment and self-discipline. Money management training in the practice of social work in Poland

Summary/Abstract: Money management trainings have been considered as part of the financial education programs aimed and building resilience and moulding financially self-disciplined households. These practices used in the context of social work can lead to empowerment of welfare beneficiaries or it can be used as tools to control household budget and discipline it’s members. In this article I address this problem and present result of the qualitative study conducted with 16 social workers and 11 family assistants on the topic of money management trainings and households budget advisory for the households of social welfare beneficiaries in Poland. Based on the assumptions of grounded theory, the analysis shows that social workers and family assistants have small control on the household budgets of their clients. However, they are trying to influence their financial behaviour by forcing attitudes such as self-discipline and control of expenditures, responsibility for the providing of goods to inhabitants, and scrupulousness in paying the debts upon the client. Finally, social workers raised the need to make financial education condition for the cash transfers, which should increase their control of the household budget and prevent recipient from wasting welfare money.

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