Jacqueline Davidson

Employability trajectories among new claimants of Incapacity Benefit

The Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), which replaced incapacity-related benefits in the UK in October 2008, is predicated on the assumption that it will be a temporary benefit for the majority of people who claim it. Following an initial medical assessment, new ESA claimants are allocated to one of two groups. Those judged to have less severe or temporary conditions are allocated to the Work-related Activity Group and are required to take active steps to prepare for a return to employment. Meanwhile, people considered to be severely disabled are allocated to the Support Group and are not expected to undertake work-related activities. This article examines the implications of this new distinction between those claimants who potentially could do paid work and those for whom that outcome is much less likely. Drawing on baseline and follow-up surveys, the article examines the employment status trajectories of a cohort of new Incapacity Benefit (IB) claimants in the year following their claim. It examines three questions. First, who returns to work and what factors are associated with that outcome? Second, how employable are the people who do not return to work and does their employability change during the first year of their claim? And third, among those who remained on IB after a year, what distinguishes people who classify themselves as permanently unable to work from those who do not? The article concludes with a discussion of the main findings and their implications for policy.

A Comparative Analysis of Child Maintenance Schemes in Five Countries

The aims of this special issue were twofold: to provide international research evidence of child maintenance schemes in five countries and to produce a comparative analysis of that research, to show how child maintenance outcomes differ across countries. The research data were collected using a vignette technique. This set up two fictional families, specifying sets of characteristics in order to explore how child maintenance schemes deal with key factors. Decision processes and payment outcomes are explored for applicants who are, for example, lone parent families on low incomes, divorcing families on middle incomes or reconstituted cohabiting families where a new child is born to the non-resident parent; the effects of changes in employment status and shared care arrangements are also considered. This final paper provides a comparative analysis of the vignettes to show how child maintenance outcomes differ across countries, and summarises the key themes that emerge from the individual country papers. Ultimately, the comparative analysis demonstrates that we have only scratched the surface in understanding similarities and differences internationally across child maintenance schemes. This is partly because of the complex interaction between child maintenance schemes and social security systems, which is not always transparent.

Choosing health: qualitative evidence from the experiences of personal health budget holders

Objectives Personal health budgets were piloted in the English National Health Service between 2009 and 2012. Semi-structured interviews with a sub-sample of early budget holders aimed to explore their experiences of receiving and using a budget. Method Over 2000 people from 20 pilot sites were recruited to a multi-method evaluation of the personal health budget pilots. A sub-sample of 58 people was selected for qualitative interviews three months after the offer of a budget; 52 were re-interviewed six months later. The purposively selected sample reflected a range of health conditions, locality, age and gender. Results Personal health budgets were reported to have positive impacts on health, health care and relatives/family. Benefits often extended beyond the condition for which the budget had been awarded. However, interviewees rarely knew the level of their budget; some reported difficulty in agreeing acceptable uses for their budget; and delays could occur in procuring chosen services or equipment. Conclusion Patients’ experiences offer valuable insights for the roll-out of personal health budgets beyond the pilot phase. Flexibility in how budgets are used may allow maximum benefits to be derived. Clear information about what budgets can and cannot be used for, with suggestions offered, will be useful. People with newly diagnosed or recent sudden onset conditions may need more help to plan their support, but all budget holders are likely to benefit from regular contact with staff for reassurance and continued motivation.

Routes to Employment for Administrators of Discretionary Payments within Social Assistance Schemes in Britain and the Netherlands

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the routes to employment taken by administrators of discretionary exceptional needs payments within social assistance in Britain and the Netherlands and questions assertions that administrators seek out their ‘occupations because of their potential as socially useful roles’ (Lipsky 1980). Empirical data illustrates that whilst Dutch administrators had often purposely embarked on a previous course of study and a subsequent career in ‘helping people’, British administrators had often come from a bureaucratic background and had, as they saw it, ‘ended up’ as Social Fund Officers, having mostly perceived the Civil Service as a means to helping themselves get a secure career. The paper concludes that, when asked to make the same kinds of decisions about (the sometimes complex exceptional needs of) social assistance beneficiaries, the two sets of workers came equipped to deal with their stressful occupations with quite different personal resources, which may be thought to impact on their understandings of poverty and the nature of social assistance dynamics.