Regional trends in awards of incapacity benefit by cause.
Regional trends in awards of incapacity benefit by cause.
Background: Since the early 1990s, rates of incapacity benefit (IB) in Britain for musculoskeletal complaints have declined, and they have been overtaken by mental and behavioural disorders as the main reason for award of IB.
Aims To explore reasons for this change.
Methods Using data supplied by the Department for Work and Pensions, we analysed trends in the ratio of new IB awards for mental and behavioural disorders to those for musculoskeletal disorders during 1997–2007 by Government region.
Results: In Great Britain overall, the above ratio more than doubled over the study period, as a consequence of falling numbers of new awards for musculoskeletal disorders. The extent to which the ratio increased was smallest in London (50%) and South-East England (56%), and was progressively larger in more northerly regions (>150% in North-East England and Scotland).
Conclusions: The differences in trends between regions seem too large to be explained by differential changes in working conditions, patterns of employment or the rigour with which claims were assessed. An alternative explanation could be that the main driver for the trends has been culturally determined changes in health beliefs and expectations, and that these cultural changes began in London and the South-East, only later spreading to other parts of Britain.
health beliefs, incapacity, mental, musculoskeletal, social security, trends
148-151
Cattrell, A.
b9e590d8-ba68-4a3a-8bfa-5a85ff318a59
Harris, E. Clare
3e4bd946-3f09-45a1-8725-d35e80dd7971
Palmer, K.T
0cfe63f0-1d33-40ff-ae8c-6c33601df850
Kim, M.
c2e4ad50-0a64-4da9-8335-78531d88e93d
Aylward, M.
c170f83a-2a37-490e-9135-6b1e069377a4
Coggon, D.
2b43ce0a-cc61-4d86-b15d-794208ffa5d3
May 2011
Cattrell, A.
b9e590d8-ba68-4a3a-8bfa-5a85ff318a59
Harris, E. Clare
3e4bd946-3f09-45a1-8725-d35e80dd7971
Palmer, K.T
0cfe63f0-1d33-40ff-ae8c-6c33601df850
Kim, M.
c2e4ad50-0a64-4da9-8335-78531d88e93d
Aylward, M.
c170f83a-2a37-490e-9135-6b1e069377a4
Coggon, D.
2b43ce0a-cc61-4d86-b15d-794208ffa5d3
Cattrell, A., Harris, E. Clare, Palmer, K.T, Kim, M., Aylward, M. and Coggon, D.
(2011)
Regional trends in awards of incapacity benefit by cause.
Occupational Medicine, 61 (3), .
(doi:10.1093/occmed/kqr008).
(PMID:21482620)
Abstract
Background: Since the early 1990s, rates of incapacity benefit (IB) in Britain for musculoskeletal complaints have declined, and they have been overtaken by mental and behavioural disorders as the main reason for award of IB.
Aims To explore reasons for this change.
Methods Using data supplied by the Department for Work and Pensions, we analysed trends in the ratio of new IB awards for mental and behavioural disorders to those for musculoskeletal disorders during 1997–2007 by Government region.
Results: In Great Britain overall, the above ratio more than doubled over the study period, as a consequence of falling numbers of new awards for musculoskeletal disorders. The extent to which the ratio increased was smallest in London (50%) and South-East England (56%), and was progressively larger in more northerly regions (>150% in North-East England and Scotland).
Conclusions: The differences in trends between regions seem too large to be explained by differential changes in working conditions, patterns of employment or the rigour with which claims were assessed. An alternative explanation could be that the main driver for the trends has been culturally determined changes in health beliefs and expectations, and that these cultural changes began in London and the South-East, only later spreading to other parts of Britain.
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Published date: May 2011
Keywords:
health beliefs, incapacity, mental, musculoskeletal, social security, trends
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Local EPrints ID: 188009
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/188009
ISSN: 0962-7480
PURE UUID: da28ff9e-73ce-4931-8601-7ddaa04deb2d
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Date deposited: 19 May 2011 13:34
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 02:52
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Contributors
Author:
A. Cattrell
Author:
E. Clare Harris
Author:
K.T Palmer
Author:
M. Kim
Author:
M. Aylward
Author:
D. Coggon
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