IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v43y2011i3p703-721.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fit for Purpose? Welfare Reform and Challenges for Health and Labour Market Policy in the UK

Author

Listed:
  • Colin Lindsay

    (The York Management School, University of York, Heslington East, York YO10 5GD, England)

  • Donald Houston

    (School of Geography and Geosciences, Irvine Building, University of St Andrews, North Street, St Andrews KY16 9AL, Scotland)

Abstract

In the UK, as in some other EU states, the focus of recent welfare reforms has switched from those on unemployment benefits to those receiving sickness/incapacity benefits (IBs), reflecting concerns around the large numbers falling into the this last group. The Labour government elected in 1997 introduced a range of measures to activate those on IBs, setting a target of a one million reduction in the number of claimants by the end of 2015. The Conservative Party similarly came to acknowledge that high levels of IB claiming represented a problem of ‘unemployment hidden as sickness’, and in coalition now proposes even more aggressive supply-side strategies. This paper provides an extensive review of the most recent evidence to identify factors driving the rise in the number of people claiming IBs and, in light of this analysis, assesses whether current policy is fit for purpose. An important conclusion is that any national ‘one-size fits all’ supply-side policy response is blind to the distinctive geography of receipt of IBs and the complex combination of factors that leave some people trapped on these benefits.

Suggested Citation

  • Colin Lindsay & Donald Houston, 2011. "Fit for Purpose? Welfare Reform and Challenges for Health and Labour Market Policy in the UK," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(3), pages 703-721, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:43:y:2011:i:3:p:703-721
    DOI: 10.1068/a43442
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a43442
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a43442?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Duncan McVicar, 2008. "Why Have Uk Disability Benefit Rolls Grown So Much?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 114-139, February.
    2. Christina Beatty & Stephen Fothergill, 2005. "The diversion from 'unemployment' to 'sickness' across British regions and districts," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(7), pages 837-854.
    3. Christina Beatty & Stephen Fothergill, 2004. "Economic Change and the Labour Market in Britain's Seaside Towns," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(5), pages 459-478.
    4. Christina Beatty & Stephen Fothergill, 2002. "Hidden Unemployment Among Men: A Case Study," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(8), pages 811-823.
    5. David H. Autor & Mark G. Duggan, 2006. "The Growth in the Social Security Disability Rolls: A Fiscal Crisis Unfolding," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(3), pages 71-96, Summer.
    6. Christina Beatty & Stephen Fothergill, 1996. "Labour Market Adjustment in Areas of Chronic Industrial Decline: The Case of the UK Coalfields," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(7), pages 627-640.
    7. Jones, Andrew M. & Rice, Nigel & Roberts, Jennifer, 2010. "Sick of work or too sick to work? Evidence on self-reported health shocks and early retirement from the BHPS," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 866-880, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wong, Sandy, 2016. "Geographies of medicalized welfare: Spatial analysis of supplemental security income in the U.S., 2000–2010," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 9-19.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jennifer Roberts & Karl Taylor, 2019. "New evidence on disability benefit claims in the UK: The role of health and local labour market," Working Papers 2019021, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics.
    2. Maria Plotnikova, 2020. "Explaining Spatial Patterns Of Incapacity Benefit Claimant Rolls," Romanian Journal of Regional Science, Romanian Regional Science Association, vol. 14(2), pages 35-48, DECEMBER.
    3. Hugo Benítez-Silva & Richard Disney & Sergi Jiménez-Martín, 2010. "Disability, capacity for work and the business cycle: an international perspective [Has the boom in incapacity benefit claimant numbers passed its peak?]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 25(63), pages 483-536.
    4. Maria Plotnikova, 2020. "Explaining Spatial Patterns Of Incapacity Benefit Claimant Rolls," Romanian Journal of Regional Science, Romanian Regional Science Association, vol. 14(2), pages 35-47, DECEMBER.
    5. Jennifer Roberts & Karl Taylor, 2022. "New Evidence on Disability Benefit Claims in Britain: The Role of Health and the Local Labour Market," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(353), pages 131-160, January.
    6. Richard Burkhauser & Mary Daly & Duncan McVicar & Roger Wilkins, 2014. "Disability benefit growth and disability reform in the US: lessons from other OECD nations," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-30, December.
    7. Christina Beatty & Steve Fothergill, 2023. "The persistence of hidden unemployment among incapacity claimants in large parts of Britain," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 38(1), pages 42-60, February.
    8. O'Leary, Nigel C. & Murphy, Philip D. & Latreille, Paul L. & Blackaby, David H. & Sloane, Peter J., 2005. "Accounting for Differences in Labour Market Outcomes in Great Britain: A Regional Analysis Using the Labour Force Survey," IZA Discussion Papers 1501, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Christina Beatty & Stephen Fothergill, 2005. "The diversion from 'unemployment' to 'sickness' across British regions and districts," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(7), pages 837-854.
    10. De Brouwer, Octave & Leduc, Elisabeth & Tojerow, Ilan, 2019. "The Unexpected Consequences of Job Search Monitoring: Disability Instead of Employment?," IZA Discussion Papers 12304, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Ossi Korkeamäki & Tomi Kyyrä, 2012. "Institutional rules, labour demand and retirement through disability programme participation," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(2), pages 439-468, January.
    12. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Tom Van Ourti, 2013. "Health and Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-170/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    13. Melanie K Jones & Duncan McVicar, 2022. "The dynamics of disability and benefit receipt in Britain [Large sample properties of matching estimators for average treatment effects]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(3), pages 936-957.
    14. Christina Beatty & Stephen Fothergill & Ryan Powell, 2007. "Twenty Years on: Has the Economy of the UK Coalfields Recovered?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 39(7), pages 1654-1675, July.
    15. Duncan McVicar, 2008. "Why Have Uk Disability Benefit Rolls Grown So Much?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 114-139, February.
    16. Fone, David & Dunstan, Frank & Williams, Gareth & Lloyd, Keith & Palmer, Stephen, 2007. "Places, people and mental health: A multilevel analysis of economic inactivity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 633-645, February.
    17. Andreas R. Kostøl & Andreas S. Myhre, 2021. "Labor Supply Responses to Learning the Tax and Benefit Schedule," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(11), pages 3733-3766, November.
    18. Ruth Hancock & Marcello Morciano & Stephen Pudney & Francesca Zantomio, 2015. "Do household surveys give a coherent view of disability benefit targeting?: a multisurvey latent variable analysis for the older population in Great Britain," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 178(4), pages 815-836, October.
    19. Sergi Jiménez-Martín & Arnau Juanmarti Mestres & Judit Vall Castelló, 2019. "Great Recession and disability insurance in Spain," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 1623-1645, May.
    20. Garrett Anstreicher, 2021. "Does increasing health care access reduce disability insurance caseloads? Evidence from the rural United States," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 786-802, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:43:y:2011:i:3:p:703-721. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.