An article said that although practitioners recognized the multiple barriers faced by those receiving long-term sickness benefits, a wider moral dialogue over 'deserving' and 'undeserving' recipients was being created and sustained as a result of negative stereotyping.
Source: Kayleigh Garthwaite, Clare Bambra, and Jon Warren, '"The unwilling and the unwell"? Exploring stakeholders' perceptions of working with long term sickness benefits recipients', Disability & Society, Volume 28 Number 8
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Dec
The government published its proposals for improving employment support for disabled people and those with health conditions. It set out proposals to work with employers, develop individual support packages, improve support for people with mental illness, and develop the financial package. A further delivery paper would be published in 2014, to build on feedback to the strategy.
Source: The Disability and Health Employment Strategy: The discussion so far, Cm 8763, Department for Work and Pensions, TSO
Links: Strategy | DWP press release
Date: 2013-Dec
A briefing paper examined provisions and debates relating to winter fuel payments.
Source: Steven Kennedy, Winter Fuel Payments Update, Standard Note SN06019, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Date: 2013-Nov
An article examined a personalization project that worked to overcome barriers and find solutions to personalization for people with severe learning disabilities and behaviour described as challenging. The article noted that the main barrier to personalization was the volume and priority of safeguarding referrals. It said the expertise and support of the project team was valued, although the project was limited by the lack of time that the commissioning workers and managers had available to engage with the project.
Source: Jayne Margaret Lingard, Vivien Cooper, and Mick Connell, 'The personalisation challenge: personalisation for people with learning disabilities and behaviour described as challenging', Tizard Learning Disability Review, Volume 19 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Nov
The Court of Appeal ruled that the government's decision to close the independent living fund and devolve the funding to local authorities should be quashed, since it did not meet the public sector equality duty.
Source: Stuart Bracking and others v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Court of Appeal 6 November 2013
Links: Judgement | BBC report | Leonard Cheshire press release | EHRC press release | Guardian report
Date: 2013-Nov
A report (by an official advisory body) outlined observations on the amendment to the Housing Benefit and Universal Credit (Size Criteria) regulations, following a Court of Appeal judgment. The judgment, Burnip and others v. Birmingham City Council and others, had ruled that children with severe disabilities might be allowed provision for their own bedroom if sharing would give rise to an unacceptable level of disruption or physical risk. The Committee had consulted with various interested bodies and raised a number of concerns about the conditionality of the amended regulations. The report included the government's response.
Source: The Housing Benefit and Universal Credit (Size Criteria) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2013 (S.I.2013 No.2828): Report by the Social Security Advisory Committee under Section 174(1) of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 and statement by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in accordance with Section 174(2) of that Act, Social Security Advisory Committee
Links: Report
Date: 2013-Nov
A paper examined the existing literature about disabled people's relationship with poverty in the United Kingdom. It considered the methodological complexities in relation to measuring 'disability' and measuring poverty in relation to disabled people. It reviewed recent policy initiatives and their anticipated impact on the lives of people with disabilities. It said that more nuanced distinctions between different experiences and contexts of disability and of poverty were important for the development of policy. It made recommendations for future research.
Source: Pauline Heslop, Disabled People and their Relationship with Poverty, Working Paper – Methods Series 23, PSE UK
Links: Paper
Date: 2013-Nov
An article examined the role that pre-claim experiences had on the outcomes for employment and support allowance claimants. Health and health trajectories were found to be central determinants of future employment experiences, but those coming on to ESA from a work background were found to move into work and off ESA more quickly. It was suggested that ESA was least effective at helping the most disadvantaged groups.
Source: Paul Sissons and Helen Barnes, 'Getting back to work? Claim trajectories and destinations of employment and support allowance claimants', Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, Volume 21 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Oct
An article examined how the coalition government's programme of cuts to disability benefits had affected coverage of disability in the media, comparing and contrasting coverage of disability in newspapers in 2010-11 with a similar period in 2004-05. The analysis suggested that disabled people had became a 'folk devil', and that there had been a significant change in the way that disability was reported. Newspaper coverage in 2010-11 was less sympathetic, and there had been an increase in articles that focused on disability benefit and fraud, together with an increase in the use of pejorative language to describe disabled people. An audience reception study suggested that this coverage was having an impact on the way that people thought about disabled people.
Source: Emma Briant, Nick Watson, and Gregory Philo, 'Reporting disability in the age of austerity: the changing face of media representation of disability and disabled people in the United Kingdom and the creation of new "folk devils"', Disability & Society, Volume 28 Number 6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Sep
The coalition government announced that it would bring in additional providers alongside Atos Healthcare to administer work capability assessments, following criticisms of the poor quality of the company's reports.
Source: Press release 22 July 2013, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: DWP press release
Date: 2013-Jul
An article presented empirical findings from a study on welfare reform conducted between 2007 and 2009, focusing on incapacity benefit claims. It considered two areas of advisers' experience: first, how they were subjected to the need to comply with directives, and how their performance was monitored via targets; and second, their attitudes and behaviours towards sanctions against those who did not attend compulsory work-focused interviews.
Source: Aimee Grant, 'Welfare reform, increased conditionality and discretion: Jobcentre Plus advisers' experiences of targets and sanctions', Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, Volume 21 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Jul
A report presented findings from a survey of disabled claimants of working-age benefits, designed to investigate disabled claimants' existing circumstances, health conditions, and attitudes towards work. Most claimants said that they wanted to work (56 per cent), and that having a job would make them better off financially (65 per cent). The most commonly reported barriers to work were a lack of job opportunities (mentioned by 36 per cent of claimants), difficulty with transport (31 per cent), and attitudes of employers (30 per cent).
Source: Liz Cole, A Survey of Disabled Working Age Benefit Claimants, In-House Research 16, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Report
Date: 2013-Jul
A survey examined financial inclusion for disabled people. It found that disabled people had made increasing use of doorstep loans as the financial crisis deepened – 1 in 10 had done so, compared with just 3 per cent of the general population. 49 per cent of disabled people used credit cards or loans to pay for everyday items including clothing and food. 19 per cent had been unable to make the minimum payment on their credit card in the previous year.
Source: Ipsos MORI, Disabled People and Financial Wellbeing, Scope
Links: Report | Scope press release
Date: 2013-Jul
A think-tank report identified opportunities for policy-makers in England to make better use of the attendance allowance (AA) system. The government should digitize all its AA data, and review its quality; explore the scope for collecting additional data that might be useful for policy development and service design; make available data on AA recipients to all local authorities, clinical commissioning groups, and health and well-being boards; improve information and advice provision for AA applicants and recipients; and investigate how to give AA recipients greater control over use of the payments while simultaneously supporting 'independence behaviours'.
Source: James Lloyd, Independence Allowance : Developing a new vision for attendance allowance in England, Strategic Society Centre/Independent Age
Links: Report | Summary | Independent Age/SSC press release | Guardian report
Date: 2013-Jun
A report said that disabled people in Scotland were going without essentials such as food, heating, and clothes to make up for the loss in their income caused by the 'bedroom tax'. Almost one-quarter of disabled people who took part in the research said that their housing benefit would be cut as a result of the new cap on the amount of housing benefit a person could receive if they were deemed to have a 'spare' room.
Source: Squeezed Out: Counting the real cost of the bedroom tax, Capability Scotland
Links: Report | Capability Scotland press release | SNP press release | Daily Record report
Date: 2013-Jun
A paper compared three major surveys (BHPS, FRS, and ELSA) in terms of the picture they gave of the relationship between disability and receipt of attendance allowance. Despite major differences in design, the surveys delivered similar results for the model of disability incidence and attendance allowance receipt – once sample composition was standardized through statistical matching. Provided surveys offered a sufficiently wide range of disability indicators, the detail of disability measurement appeared relatively unimportant.
Source: Ruth Hancock, Marcello Morciano, Stephen Pudney, and Francesca Zantomio, Do Household Surveys Give a Coherent View of Disability Benefit Targeting? A multi-survey latent variable analysis for the older population in Great Britain, Working Paper 2013-05, Institute for Social and Economic Research (University of Essex)
Links: Working paper
Note: FRS = Family Resources Survey; BHPS = British Household Panel Survey; ELSA = English Longitudinal Survey of Ageing.
Date: 2013-May
The official statistics watchdog ruled that the Conservative party chairman (Grant Shapps MP) had been incorrect to claim in March 2013 that: '878,300 people claiming incapacity benefit – more than a third of the total – have chosen to drop their benefit claim entirely rather than face a medical assessment'. It said that the figure quoted by Shapps appeared to conflate official statistics relating to new claimants of employment and support allowance with official statistics on recipients of incapacity benefit who were being migrated across to employment and support allowance. It also referred to government research suggesting that an important reason why employment and support allowance claims were withdrawn or closed before they were fully assessed was that the person had recovered, and either returned to work or claimed a benefit more appropriate to their situation.
Source: Letter to Sheila Gilmore MP, 29 May 2013, UK Statistics Authority
Links: Letter | Labour Party press release | BBC report | Guardian report | New Statesman report
Date: 2013-May
A report presented the results of research conducted with people likely to be affected by the implementation of the new personal independence payment, examining their views of the claims and decision-making processes.
Source: Lorna Adams, Katie Oldfield, Angus Tindle, Camilla Huckle, and Becky Duncan, Personal Independence Payment User-Centred Design: Summary of testing, Research Report 837, Department for Work and Pensions
Notes: The personal independence payment replaced disability living allowance (from April 2013) for eligible working-age people aged 16 to 64. It is designed to cover some of the extra costs arising from a long-term ill-health condition or disability.
Date: 2013-May
An article said that the exploitation of emotional reactions was crucial in understanding the ways in which changes to out-of-work benefits for disabled people had recently been effected. This had reflected a desire to more closely denote those judged able and not able to work in a redrawing of the 'disability category'. Although this had been done in the name of inclusion, its consequences had been, in various ways, the exclusion and stigmatization of disabled people.
Source: Chris Grover and Linda Piggott, 'Disability and social (in)security: emotions, contradictions of "inclusion" and employment and support allowance', Social Policy and Society, Volume 12 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-May
A report examined the potential impact of benefit cuts on disabled people in Wales. It said that disabled people in Wales would be particularly hard hit. It concluded with a set of recommendations for both the United Kingdom and Welsh Governments – as well as public bodies such as local authorities, health boards, and emergency services – to mitigate the negative impact of the changes.
Source: Cap in Hand? The impact of welfare reform on disabled people in Wales, Disability Wales
Links: Report | Report (Welsh) | Disability Wales press release
Date: 2013-Apr
A new book examined key issues surrounding disability benefits, welfare reform, and employment policy – including the appropriateness of active labour market policies that sought to promote transitions from incapacity benefits into work. It drew on evidence from the United Kingdom and a number of other European countries.
Source: Colin Lindsay and Donald Houston (eds), Disability Benefits, Welfare Reform and Employment Policy, Palgrave Macmillan
Links: Summary
Date: 2013-Apr
A think-tank analysis found that disabled people would lose £28.3 billion of support by 2018 as a result of benefit cuts introduced by the coalition government. Up to 3.7 million disabled people would be affected in total. Thousands of disabled people would be hit simultaneously by up to six different welfare cuts, including cuts in disability living allowance, employment and support allowance, and housing benefit.
Source: Destination Unknown: April 2013, Demos
Links: Summary | Demos press release | Scope press release | Guardian report
Date: 2013-Mar
An article examined the targeting of attendance allowance (an extra-cost disability benefit for older people). Uptake was found to be highly responsive to the onset of disability. Timely receipt of the allowance reduced disabled older people's financial strain.
Source: Francesca Zantomio, 'Older people's participation in extra-cost disability benefits', Journal of Health Economics, Volume 32 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Jan
A report said that the replacement of the disability living allowance with the personal independence payment in 2018 would mean that up to 428,000 fewer people would qualify for the enhanced mobility element, which provided eligibility to lease cars. This would mean that many disabled people would no longer be able to work; and almost all those affected would struggle to attend medical appointments, go shopping, parent their children, support their families, and take part in daily life.
Source: Jane Young, Rob Parsons, B Morris, and Sam Barnett-Cormack, Emergency Stop: The hidden economic and social cost of welfare reform, We Are Spartacus
Links: Report | Green Party press release | Ekklesia report | Guardian report | Public Finance report
Date: 2013-Jan
An article examined recent and forthcoming developments in mental health policy, and the impact of welfare reforms on people with mental health problems. Key components of the existing disability benefits system were not working for people with mental health problems, and the design of welfare reform over recent years had been ineffective in supporting their health and employment aspirations.
Source: Sophie Corlett, '"Articles of faith"? Questioning the assumptions of disability welfare and benefits', Mental Health and Social Inclusion, Volume 17 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Jan