New Perspectives on Health, Disability, Welfare and the Labour Market

Bringing together researchers from the fields of social policy, economics, sociology and clinical psychology, this book offers new evidence on the inter-related problems faced by disability claimants, and identifies important lessons for policy. Explores how reducing the level of UK benefit claiming among those with health limitations has been a priority for successive governments Argues that current policy fails to reflect the evidence that people on long-term disability benefits face a complex combination of barriers to work and social inclusion Demonstrates that there is a need for continuing inter-disciplinary research on the nature of the ‘disability benefits problem’ and the efficacy of current policy solutions and public services

List of Contributors vii Introduction: New Perspectives on Health, Disability, Welfare and the Labour Market 1 Colin Lindsay, Bent Greve, Ignazio Cabras, Nick Ellison and Stephen Kellett 1 Assessing the Evidence Base on Health, Employability and the Labour Market – Lessons for Activation in the UK 5 Colin Lindsay, Bent Greve, Ignazio Cabras, Nick Ellison and Stephen Kellett 2 Disability Benefits in an Age of Austerity 25 Christina Beatty and Steve Fothergill 3 From Impairment to Incapacity – Educational Inequalities in Disabled People’s Ability to Work 47 Ben Baumberg 4 ‘Keeping meself to meself’ – How Social Networks Can Influence Narratives of Stigma and Identity for Long-term Sickness Benefits Recipients 65 Kayleigh Garthwaite 5 Measuring the Impacts of Health Conditions on Work Incapacity – Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey 81 William Whittaker and Matt Sutton 6 The Influence of Presenting Health Condition on Eventual Return to Work for Individuals Receiving Health-Related Welfare Benefits 107 Fiona Purdie and Stephen Kellett 7 A Review of Health-related Support Provision within the UK Work Programme – What’s on the Menu? 127 Jenny Ceolta-Smith, Sarah Salway and Angela Mary Tod 8 Supporting the UK’s Workless – An International Comparative Perspective 151 Mike Danson, Ailsa McKay and Willie Sullivan Index 175