The idea of requiring poor people to work in order to receive social support is much older than it seems. It is almost 200 years old.

The announcement of the creation of a Single Social Benefit (PSU), accompanied by the idea of linking its allocation to mandatory forms of work or social participation, has brought an old question back into public debate: what should the relationship be between social protection, education, work, and citizenship?

When England reformed its poverty legislation in 1834, it created a system based on a simple conviction: anyone receiving public assistance should face conditions harsh enough to ensure that welfare would never become a desirable alternative to work. The workhouses became the symbol of this philosophy. Poverty was seen less as a consequence of economic and social circumstances than as the result of individual shortcomings in character, effort, or responsibility.

Nearly two centuries have passed. Societies have changed profoundly. Yet the question returns in new forms.

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