O'Brien, Charlotte
(2018).
EU Rights Project data collection.
[Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex:
UK Data Archive.
10.5255/UKDA-SN-852875
The project investigates at first-hand how easy it is to use the rights granted by EU law in the UK, to test how well EU citizenship rights work in practice, and to test the values of social and administrative justice in EU law. In collaboration with Ripon Citizens Advice Bureau, the Principal Investigator (PI) will set up a specialist advice and advocacy service on EU welfare claims.
While advising and representing clients, the PI will also conduct a parallel study of the obstacles the clients encounter during their claims and appeals. This 'advice led ethnography' is an innovative new approach, especially in the context of EU law. It combines socio-legal studies with theoretical, philosophical and historical work on EU social law.
Data description (abstract)
The EU Rights Project was a legal action research project - in which the lead researcher had a dual role, of both advising EU nationals in the UK on their welfare rights, and doing case work and advocacy on their behalf, and secondly, documenting the obstacles encountered, through field notes. The project was supported through focus groups and interviews, to help shape the research questions, and ask about the project's findings, so some of the data are transcriptions of those interactions. The bulk of the work, and so the bulk of the data, however, relates to the legal action case work. The data relates to 41 separate client cases on which I worked, featuring clients from 15 Member States; of these three of these (case 1, case and case 38) each gave rise to a further case, due to different enquiries from the same client. I also received nine evidence submissions: that is, pre-prepared case studies that did not require my input. This comes to a total of 53 cases, or sets of notes.
The main research questions, to which the field notes were intended to speak were: (i) what are the key legal and administrative obstacles to EU nationals making benefit claims in the UK? (ii) what are the key legal and administrative obstacles to EU nationals challenging benefit decisions - at first instance/on mandatory consideration/on appeal/in tribunal in the UK? and (iii) how many contacts, and of what type, do clients have to make/receive during the course of their cases?
| Data creators: |
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| Sponsors: |
Economic and Social Research Council
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| Grant reference: |
ES/K000993/1
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| Topic classification: |
Law, crime and legal systems
Social welfare policy and systems
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| Keywords: |
sociolegal studies, EU law, EU citizenship, UK welfare law
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| Project title: |
Realising EU welfare rights: administrative gatekeeping and the accessibility of EU law
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| Grant holders: |
Charlotte O'Brien
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| Project dates: |
| From | To |
|---|
| 31 October 2013 | 28 June 2017 |
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| Date published: |
20 Mar 2018 17:01
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| Last modified: |
20 Mar 2018 17:01
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| Collection period: |
| Date from: | Date to: |
|---|
| 31 October 2013 | 28 June 2017 |
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| Country: |
United Kingdom |
| Data collection method: |
The main data collection method employed was advice-led ethnography. This first-hand, action-based approach to the research was necessary, because my prior experience of advice work made it clear that it would not be possible to get much insight into the claims and appeals process just through an observational study. An observational study would have required the availability of specialist advice for EU nationals, to enable them to negotiate the claims and appeals processes under study. But there are few, and decreasing, sources of information and advice available in the UK for EU nationals seeking support in a complex area of law. For more information, see the file Methodology_Extended.
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| Observation unit: |
Event/Process |
| Kind of data: |
Text |
| Type of data: |
Qualitative and mixed methods data |
| Resource language: |
English |
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| Data sourcing, processing and preparation: |
Field notes: I have not included the clients' original documents, letters, or the original Citizens Advice case notes, as these would all have to be heavily redacted, and I do not have permission to share them.
Focus groups: in places cleaning the data has meant removing any identifying information with regard to the group participants, or to people or organisations that were the subjects of their discussions.
Interviews: I only have permission to share one of the five interviews, as the others focussed on discussions raising specific cases, of clients and third party clients, who were not part of the study and whose consent could not be obtained, and discussions of/quotes from other third parties.
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| Rights owners: |
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| Contact: |
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| Notes on access: |
The Data Collection is available for download to users registered with the UK Data Service. All requests are subject to the permission of the data owner or his/her nominee. Please email the contact person for this data collection to request permission to access the data, explaining your reason for wanting access to the data. Once permission is obtained, please forward this to the ReShare administrator.
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| Publisher: |
UK Data Archive
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| Last modified: |
20 Mar 2018 17:01
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