Indebted to the state: the role of debts-to-government in the social reproduction of the relative surplus population in post-financial crisis England

As a cost-living crisis grips the United Kingdom, concern about rising household precarity and indebtedness has again come to the fore. In this context, the current project seeks to contribute to the existing literature on the role of debt in the social reproduction of low-income households. However, it will address a key lacuna within the literature by investigating an increasingly problematic form of household debt that has previously been neglected, namely debts owed to the state. The study will focus in particular on two of the most common forms of debts-to-government in the UK: benefit overpayments and council tax arrears. The project aims to investigate how these debts-to-government have grown in significance in the UK, how they influence people's interactions with and use of private credit, and how they potentially undermine the social reproduction of low-income households, drawing on Marx's concept of the relative surplus population. The project also seeks to explore what the creation and collection of these debts reveals about the changing role of the state in post-financial crisis England. In doing so, it will draw upon Soederberg's (2014) work which theorises that the state plays a key role in fostering a reliance upon credit to sustain social reproduction among the relative surplus population, thereby creating a market for credit-led accumulation. By investigating debts-to-government, this study aims to elucidate one of the mechanisms via which the state may achieve this.

The project, therefore, aims to address the following research questions:

1. Why have debts-to-government increased since the Global Financial Crisis, and through which forms?

2. What role does the creation of these debts play in the social reproduction of relative surplus populations?

3. What role do debts-to-government play in reproducing relative surplus populations as a market for credit-led accumulation?

4. What impact do the debt collection practices of the state have on the social reproduction of relative surplus populations?

5. What does the creation and collection of these debts-to-government reveal about the role of the state in post-financial crisis England?

Through an investigation into the impacts that these debts-to-government have on social reproduction, the project will further develop our understanding of how state intervention disciplines and reconstructs the relative surplus population. Specifically, it will elucidate how the active creation of debt by the state serves to hold relative surplus populations in an unstable position close to the labour market, and thus subject to the disciplining effects of market forces. Drawing on Soederberg's (2014) concept of the debtfare state, the project will also investigate how these debts created by the state foster a reliance on credit, and thus potentially risk undermining the social reproduction of relative surplus populations.

In order to achieve this, the project combines a detailed examination of the advocacy, legislation and policy documentation pertinent to the creation and collection of these debts-to-government with in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Interviews will be conducted with members of the relative surplus population that are indebted to the state, debt advisors, welfare advisors, and state actors working for the Department for Work and Pensions, HMRC, and local authorities. The interviews will thus entail varied perspectives, providing valuable insight into the experiences of those that are indebted, the logics that underpin and govern the state bureaucracy, and the experiences of those professionals that are tasked with liaising between the two.