Title:	Disability Benefits, Welfare Reform and Employment Policy
Authors:	Colin Lindsay Donald Houston
Keywords:	Employment Policy
Issue Date:	2013
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Description:	At the start of 2012, more than two and a half million people of working age were out of work and claiming disability benefits in the UK (see Box 1.1). Since 1979 the numbers on these benefits have more than trebled. Successive governments have argued that the large numbers of people spending long periods on disability benefits represents a social and economic crisis. Beyond the fiscal pressures placed on welfare budgets (which have become particularly acute in the context of recurring recession and public spending deficits), there is evidence that long periods spent on these benefits can further undermine individuals’ health (Brown et al., 2009), increase the risk of poverty (Kemp and Davidson, 2010) and feed into ‘risky behaviours’ (Waddell et al., 2007). From an economic perspective, it is argued that high levels of working age inactivity represent a waste of human capital, as skills and labour are haemorrhaged from the productive economy (Beatty et al., 2010). Finally, population ageing and pressures on pension schemes mean that, in the long term, there will be a need to keep older people working, and working for longer, with the ‘active management’ of health conditions bound to be a key element of any policy solution (Loretto et al., 2007). Given this context, it is unsurprising that policy makers have expressed a determination to reduce the numbers claiming disability benefits. Recent policy responses in the UK have focused on the reform of disability benefit regulations in order to establish a more ‘active’ disability benefits regime; restrict eligibility; extend means- testing; limit payment levels; and introduce active labour market programmes (Pathways to Work from 2003, and its successor, the Work Programme since 2011). This book explores whether these policy responses (see Box 1.2) are fit for purpose by: presenting evidence on why benefit rolls have risen and why For the purposes of this book, we define ‘disability benefits’ as those monetary benefits granted under contributory and non- contributory state schemes and paid to people experiencing long- term sickness, disability or reduced work capacity as means of earnings replacement. This may include some early retirement schemes specific to disability or reduced work capacity (these operate in countries such as Denmark and Germany) and some broader social assistance schemes that have a specific disability component. Our focus is on the main state benefits, and not private disability insurance benefits. This definition is broadly similar to that used by recent cross- national studies (OECD, 2010).
URI:	http://10.6.20.12:80/handle/123456789/51347
ISBN:	978-1-137-31427-7
Appears in Collections:	Population Studies

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