The diversion from ‘unemployment’ to ‘sickness’ across British regions and districts

Abstract

Beatty C. and Fothergill S. (2005) The diversion from ‘unemployment’ to ‘sickness’ across British regions and districts, Regional Studies 39 , 837–854. Around 2.7 million non‐employed adults of working age in the UK claim sickness‐related benefits, and the numbers have risen steeply over time. The very large variation in the numbers across districts and regions points strongly to extensive hidden unemployment, especially in older industrial areas affected by job losses. This paper builds on two previous papers by the same authors – one dealing with the theoretical framework and the other with a local case study – to present wholly new estimates of the scale of the diversion across all parts of the country. It also questions contemporary perceptions of the UK labour market and the validity of current approaches to re‐engaging sickness claimants with employment.Unemployment, Sickness, Social Security, Districts, Chômage, Maladie, Sécurité sociale, Districts, Erwerbslosigkeit, Krankheit, Sozialhilfe, Distrikte, Desempleo, Incapacidad laboral, Seguridad social, Distritos, JEL classifications: J64, J68, R23,

‘Most of industry's shutting down up here. . .’: Employability Initiatives to Tackle Worklessness in Areas of Low Labour Market Demand

“…Moreover, a strong feeling was expressed by participants in many of the interventions that the availability of jobs was extremely limited, especially away from the main economic centres. Where jobs were available, they often failed to offer participants the quality and security that they were looking for: The extracts in Table 5 align with a considerable body of evidence which suggests that despite central government"s continued focus on supply side issues and work activation policies, there remain large disparities across the country in terms of employment opportunities (Turok and Webster, 1998;Peck, 1999;Martin, Nativel and Sunley, 2003;Beatty and Fothergill, 2005;Theodore 2007). For example, Theodore (2007) focuses on the North-South divide, with areas of the North accounting for over 75% of the jobs deficit, and draws attention to particular gaps in the bottom quarter of the labour market.…”

“…Although arguments around the neglect of structural barriers in employment initiatives have been well rehearsed (e.g. Beatty and Fothergill, 2005;Devins and Hogarth, 2005;Grover, 2007), this study provides empirical evidence to show that these challenges have not yet been responded to by policy makers. It should be noted that this paper focuses exclusively on the perceptions and experiences of individuals who participated in employability schemes and does not attempt to deal with employers" views or assess supply side issues (issues which have not been significantly examined in relation to recent employability schemes in the UK and which warrant further research).…”

“…Like many employability projects in the UK, each of the thirteen interventions focussed on the supply side of the labour market in providing training, advice and support and paid scant, if any, attention to demand-side factors (Beatty and Fothergill, 2005;Devins and Hogarth, 2005;Bambra, 2006;Grover, 2007). This is particularly important given that participants reported facing persistent structural barriers to employment, such as a low availability of accessible, high-quality, suitable employment or training opportunities.…”

Geographies of the impact of retirement on health in the United Kingdom

“…Beatty and Fothergill (2005) provide evidence to suggest that the UK benefits system has steadily diverted the long term jobless from unemployment benefits to sickness benefits particularly in the former industrial and mining areas of the UK during the 1980s and early 1990s. Additionally, Houston and Lindsay (2010) note that those with low skills and qualifications and with experience in manual occupations are at a greater disadvantage in the labour market of today compared with the industrial labour market of the past.…”

Unemployment, Permanent Sickness, and Nonwork in the United Kingdom

“…In making unemployment and unemployment benefit less attractive, policy made sickness benefit more attractive. Government policies changed the nature of dependency, and encouraged lasting withdrawal from the working population (see Beatty and Fothergill, 2005). Section 4 returns to regional contrasts and compares male unemployment and nonwork in the most and least prosperous parts of Britain.…”