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
10 - Beliefs about disability
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
The introduction of new benefits in the 1970s reflected a shift in social attitudes to disabled people and recognition that society had a role in responding to their financial needs. Policy since then has, with rare exceptions, been a response to fears that the changed attitudes and benefit provisions may have created excessive, or indeed illicit, demand for benefits.
Survey evidence on the extent of disability has proved influential, increasing the climate for policy reform, although the definition and measurement of disability and incapacity has proved very difficult. It is possible that people may have fewer inhibitions about reporting impairments, particularly minor ones.
The public awareness of disability as a legitimate reason for benefit receipt appears to have increased, and it may be more acceptable for people to define themselves as ‘disabled’, and to seek out appropriate benefits.
It is possible that changing conventions about who should work have made it more acceptable for disabled people not to be in employment. However, there is evidence that many disabled people themselves want work, but may not believe they have much practical chance of getting a job.
The receipt of Incapacity Benefit is greatest in regions of high unemployment, and ill-health early retirement has increased. These trends are believed to reflect the diversion into ‘hidden unemployment’ or premature retirement. However, it has not been proven that these trends invariably represent a deliberate choice by individuals to positively choose a life on benefit.
The key to understanding the growth in benefit recipiency by disabled people is to recognise the change in the way that society has understood and responded to disability issues. In the early part of the 20th century, disability was virtually invisible in benefit policy, largely limited to a response to catastrophic events, such as war or industrial injury, where compensation was both practical and morally clear-cut. Only gradually did policy come to address both the opportunity and additional costs of disability. For the purposes of state Income Support, ‘disability’ encompasses both short and long-term absences from work, through sickness or physical or mental impairments. Most of the early schemes were based on physical impairments, with mental health and learning disability recognised later on (Brown, 1984).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Making of a Welfare Class?Benefit Receipt in Britain, pp. 121 - 136Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2000