08 August 2008 – Publication of DWP research report 516: routes onto Incapacity Benefit: findings from a follow-up survey of recent claimants

Research published on the 21 July by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) provides quantitative information on the position of recent claimants a year after their application for Incapacity Benefit (IB).

These results are from a follow-up survey of 801 recent Incapacity Benefit (IB) claimants.

The main findings are:

• The overwhelming majority (89%) of recent IB claimants reported that having a job was very important to them.  The majority of people who were neither working nor permanently off sick had undertaken work-focused activities, such as job search, in the previous six months.
• Those who were not working but did not class themselves as permanently off work were much more pessimistic about their chances of getting a job after a year on IB.  Higher proportions of IB claimants felt they faced barriers to work, and the average number of perceived barriers had increased.  In addition, more respondents classified themselves as permanently off work. 
• People whose route onto IB was from work were significantly more likely to be in paid work than other respondents at the time of the follow-up survey.
• The odds of being in paid work at follow-up were lower, other things being equal, for people who still had a health condition or disability, were aged 55 and above, or who lived in social housing.
• Nearly three quarters of those who had returned to work said that support from their GP had been helpful in getting them back to work.  Nine out of ten said that support from their family and friends had been important.
• Where employers had made workplace adjustments to accommodate their health condition or disability, nine out of ten said that it had helped them to keep doing their job.

Notes to editors

1. DWP research report 516: Routes onto Incapacity Benefit: Findings from a follow-up survey of recent claimants was published on 21 July 2008.
2. This follow-up telephone survey, of 801 of the original survey participants, took place between July and October 2007 (approximately 1 year after their initial claim).  It provides information about changes in health, benefit and work status in the six months since the initial interview, and examines the factors associated with return to work.
3. The analysis was undertaken by the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of Oxford, and the Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York, and the interviews were carried out by Ipsos-MORI.  The report’s authors are Peter Kemp and Jacqueline Davidson.
4. This report provides the results of a follow-up to the Routes onto Incapacity Benefit survey (ROIB).  The original survey, of 1843 new IB claimants, was carried out between September 2006 and January 2007.  The Routes onto Incapacity Benefit survey provided robust information on the characteristics, circumstances and perceptions of new claimants of IB (DWP research report 469).  The summary is available at http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/summ2007-2008/469summ.pdf and the full report can be accessed at http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rports2007-2008/rrep469.pdf
5. The survey reports followed on from a previous qualitative study carried out by the Social Policy Research Unit, which explored the life histories of recipients prior to making a claim (DWP Research Report no. 350).  The summary is available at http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/summ2005-2006/350summ.pdf and the full report can be accessed at http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rports2005-2006/rrep350.pdf

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Prepared by: Department for Work and Pensions Welfare to Work Directorate