How could CCTs’ conditionalities reinforce vulnerability? Non-compliers and policy implementation gaps in Uruguay’s Family Allowances Cecilia Rossel, Denise Courtoisie and Magdalena Marsiglia 1 Abstract Influential research shows that conditionalities could incentivize recipients of Conditional Cash Transfer programmes (CCTs) to send their children to school and to regular health checkups. However, a growing literature is posing the risks of conditioning transfers, from a both philosophical and an empirical perspective. This work highlights the varied deficits that have accompanied the implementation process in some Latin American countries, as well as the consequences these deficits might have on the beneficiaries. In particular, it suggests that, rather than reducing vulnerability by improving access to services, conditionalities could be reinforcing it among non-compliers if non-compliance leads to the immediate suspension of the cash transfer and if this sanction poorly implemented. While this hypothesis has gained attention and is part of both an academic and a political debate, empirical research around it is scarce. This paper is an attempt to start filling this gap by focusing on the implementation process of conditionalities in a CCT programme in Uruguay (Family allowances) and how this is experienced by a group of recipients who failed to comply with the conditionalities and were sanctioned with the suspension of the benefit. In particular, it identifies the main reasons why these beneficiaries did not comply, how they experience the sanction and how they managed – when they do – to apply for the benefit to be restored. Based on a qualitative design of in-depth interviews, it provides empirical evidence to unpack de causal relationship linking conditionalities to increased vulnerability among non-compliers. 1 Catholic University in Uruguay, Department of Social and Political Sciences. Corresponding author: Cecilia Rossel. Email: cecilia.rossel@ucu.edu.uy Acknowledgements: The authors thank Pilar Manzi and Natalie Golffed for excellent research assistance. They also thank an anonymous reviewer; Nieves Rico; Simone Cecchini; Fabian Borges; Andrea Vigorito as well as the members of the regular research workshop at the Department of Social and Political Sciences of the Catholic University of Uruguay for their comments to previous versions of this article. The article presents part of the results of the research project ‘Programas de transferencias, condicionalidades y derechos de la infancia y la adolescencia: apuntes a partir del caso del Uruguay’, conducted by Nieves Rico and funded by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi: 10.1111/dpr.12327 This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Accepted Article Accepted Article