Bringing Incapacity Benefit numbers down: to what extent do women need a different approach?

Abstract

The dominant narrative used to explain the big rise in Incapacity Benefit (IB) numbers across Britain is essentially about men. The collapse of male employment in older industries, mostly in the North, Scotland and Wales, led to the emergence of a cohort of mainly older, less healthy men who accessed IB instead of unemployment benefits. What this overlooks is that among the under-60s the number of women claiming IB now almost equals the number of men. In view of the long-term increase in employment opportunities for women, the similarity in IB numbers is at first sight surprising. Does this mean that bringing down the number of women on IB requires a different approach? The article draws on evidence from a survey of men and women claiming IB, in-depth interviews with claimants and professional stakeholders and secondary data analysis. The identical geography of male and female IB claimants suggests that a weak aggregate demand for labour is through time transmitted, via labour market sorting processes, to exclude from employment the most disadvantaged in terms of skills and health, irrespective of gender. The article highlights important similarities between the men and women claiming IB but also a number of distinctive issues affecting women, including the roles of increased labour market participation, lone parenthood and the impact of benefit rules. It is concluded that a package of economic regeneration and supply-side interventions will bring down the number of both men and women claiming IB.

Keywords:

• gender
• health
• unemployment
• United Kingdom
• welfare reform

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank three anonymous referees and Dr Colin Lindsay for comments on earlier versions of this paper. The research on which this article draws was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council Research Grant RES-062-23-0086 and eight local authorities or regeneration agencies based in the areas listed in note three below. We are indebted to Carol Beattie and Mike Daly at the Department for Work and Pensions for arranging access to IB claimants.

Notes

1. Those receiving IB, Severe Disablement Allowance or National Insurance Credits Only on the grounds of incapacity for work (this last group do not have the necessary employment record to qualify for benefits, but if they qualify for means-tested Income Support they will receive a top-up disability premium – most of these cases are lone parents).

2. Research grant ref no. RES 062230086.

3. Barrow in Furness, Blackpool, Easington, East Lindsey, Great Yarmouth, Hull, Knowsley and Wansbeck.

4. This used to arise when their youngest child reached 16, but the threshold was lowered to 12 in November 2008 and is scheduled to be reduced again to 10 by October 2009 and 7 in October 2010.

5. The Index of Dissimilarity (ID) compares the distributions of two groups (in this case men and women) across categories (in this case industries). It can be interpreted as the proportion of one group that would need to move between categories in order to produce an identical distribution to the other group. For example, an ID of 0.32 means that 32% of one group would need to change category in order to produce the same distribution as the comparator group.