Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Acknowledgements
- List of acronyms
- Part 1 Setting the scene
- Part 2 Benefits for unemployed people
- Part 3 Benefits for disabled people
- Part 4 Benefits for children and families
- Part 5 Benefits for retirement
- Part 6 Towards a welfare class?
- References and further reading
- Index
14 - Understanding the growth in disability benefits
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Acknowledgements
- List of acronyms
- Part 1 Setting the scene
- Part 2 Benefits for unemployed people
- Part 3 Benefits for disabled people
- Part 4 Benefits for children and families
- Part 5 Benefits for retirement
- Part 6 Towards a welfare class?
- References and further reading
- Index
Summary
Summary
Increasing recognition of the financial and opportunity costs of disability, and public perceptions that views of disabled people were ‘legitimate’ longterm welfare recipients, were important factors in the growth in benefit caseloads. They led to the introduction of new benefits, and possibly higher up-take.
The changing economy and labour market may have contributed to increasing benefit caseloads, especially to longer periods on benefit. Marketled requirements for firms to be more productive and competitive may have also reduced job opportunities and lengthened spells on benefit, thus excluding some disabled people from the labour market.
There has also been some increase in the reported prevalence of disability, perhaps also linked to greater public awareness of disability.
Trends in increasing worklessness, poor health experiences for some groups of people, as well as an ageing population, may also have contributed to the growth in disability benefit caseloads.
The precise pattern of factors determining caseload size varies between different benefits, not least because of the diverse circumstances of disabled people claiming benefit.
The growth in the caseloads of most benefits for disabled people in the last 30 years has been dramatic. Disabled people now constitute the largest group of benefit recipients after retirement pensioners, and one fifth of pensioners now receive a disability benefit. Perhaps the most important reason for the growth has been the change in public attitudes towards disability, and recognition that the state has a duty to support disabled people financially (Figure 14.1).
Ironically, as disabled people's organisations have been campaigning for better civil and employment rights, the numbers dependent on benefit have grown dramatically.
Changes in attitudes towards disabled people over time may also reflect the subjective nature of some conditions, depending on the interaction between the person's impairment and their environment. Having a more positive ‘label’ than ‘unemployed’, people may have been more inclined to take up benefits that are based on an assessment of impairment. In a sense, like poverty, disability may be a relative concept.
However, despite this common feature, the experience and circumstances of disabled people are very diverse, and the relative importance of the multiplicity of factors leading to the growth in the numbers claiming individual benefits varies.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Making of a Welfare Class?Benefit Receipt in Britain, pp. 179 - 186Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2000