Policy has long been based on the assumption that disabled people are either capable, or incapable, of work. This paper extends earlier analyses which show that the probability of employment is a variable, not an absolute. The disability employment penalty varies by number, type, severity and...

The research compares the employment prospects of disadvantaged social groups in Britain over the past 30 years. It uses data from the General Household Survey, conducted almost every year between 1974 and 2003, with a total sample of 368,000 adults aged 20 to 59. A logistic regression equation...

This short paper aims to contribute to the live debate about the current recession in the United Kingdom by analysing the impact of the recessions of the early 1980s and 1990s on non-employment patterns among people in the main range of working ages. The implication is that the effects observed...

Attendance Allowance and the care component of Disability Living Allowance are paid to nearly four million elderly or disabled people who need to help in their daily lives. In the course of recent debate about financing the growing demand for social care services, the Wanless report (2006)...

Social security benefits designed to meet the extra costs faced by disabled people have been in place since the early 1970s, and currently cost nearly 15 billion per year. Over the period the benefits have enjoyed bilateral political support, and the only major changes (eg in 1992) have been to...

The Department for Work and Pensions committed itself to exploring the take-up of Carer's Allowance at the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee in May 2009. This study was commissioned as a first step in that enquiry. The report summarises the questions and discusses possible research...

The number of people claiming incapacity benefits increased rapidly to the mid 1990s, and has hardly reduced since then. This paper uses survey data to plot trends over time in the prevalence of disability, and in the employment rates of disabled people, in a way which is independent of, but...