Evidence, objectivity and welfare reform: a qualitative study of disability benefit assessments (original) (raw)
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Critically assess the impact of relevant social policies regarding Disability in the public domain in the UK. This essay will look at the theories and definitions of disability and how the theories have informed the discourse, legislation and policies relating to disability discrimination. The essay will also critically analyse UK legislation and policies in the areas of education, employment and access to services. The treatment of disabled people in the UK can be divided into three broadly distinct phases: the moral model of disability which can be traced from the early 17 th century to the introduction of the medical model; the period of the medical model from 1952 onwards; and the recent history where the social model of disability has gained impetus from 1983. The search for equality for all has led to the propositioning of different policy frameworks in order to achieve equal opportunities in the UK. This has dominated UK policy since the 1970 ¶s, producing legislation such as the Equal Pay Act, 1970; Sex Discrimination Act 1975, and Race Relations Act 1975 and Smith (2011) argue that equal treatment does not produce equal outcomes and still leaves groups of people discriminated against. Ross and Schneider (1992) argued that the equal opportunities agenda focused on groups rather than individuals and hence created tokenistic policies which generated changes to individuals with diverse needs. Oliver (1990) argued that equal opportunities implied that everybody should be treated the same and failed to address inequalities and sustained disabling barriers. This essay will look at how or whether legislation has embraced diversity.
Between Hope and Evil: Reframing Disability Allowances
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The paper identifies and traces the roots of a fundamental tension that underlies disability politics with regard to disability allowances: are cash benefits an archaic and outdated form of assistance to disabled people, or are they still a relevant mode of response to systematic marginalization and exclusion? Based on a field study of the Israeli disability community the paper shows that while disability rights advocates tend to reject disability allowances as fundamentally wrong and to support the transformation of society's social structures, welfare activists tend to view disability allowances as responding to the most pressing needs of poor disabled people. The paper employs a disability legal studies framework to analyze the study's findings. It suggests thinking of disability allowances as located in a complex and intriguing tension between two dichotomous conceptualizations of either evil or hope: Disability allowances are seen as a manifestation of evil because they perpetuate the ableist structure of society. They offer a vision of hope when seen as a response to a pressing necessity, an expression of social responsibility, and a means to provide economic security for disabled people. The paper maintains that both approaches lack a more complex understanding of the relationships between disability and poverty. It concludes with a call to re-conceptualize disability allowances, as a form of compensations that redress disabled people -individually and collectively -for society's continuing practices of exclusion and discrimination. The struggles of disabled people over rights and allowances become a fascinating site from which to draw the critical lessons that disability activism has to offer to social theory.
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Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is a UK social security benefit designed to meet the extra costs associated with disability. It has been suggested that some people with disabilities who are eligible for DLA do not claim the benefit, and amongst those who do claim there are inconsistencies of award decision-making. The aim of this research was to establish the level of knowledge relating to DLA amongst disabled people in Scotland and to explore the process of application from the perspective of those involved. Questionnaires were distributed through voluntary organizations. Six hundred and six completed questionnaires were received.
Disabled but not deserving? The perceived deservingness of disability welfare benefit claimants
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While disability benefits make up the largest group of claimants in high-income countries, we know surprisingly little about which disabled people are seen as ‘deserving’ benefits, nor whether different people in different countries judge deservingness-related characteristics similarly. This is surprising given they are increasingly the focus of retrenchment, which often affirms the deservingness of ‘truly deserving’ disabled people while focusing cuts and demands on those ‘less deserving’. This article addresses this gap using two vignette-based factorial survey experiments: (i) the nine-country ‘Stigma in Global Context – Mental Health Study’ (SGC-MHS); (ii) a new YouGov survey in Norway/the UK, together with UK replication. I find a hierarchy of symptoms/impairments, from wheelchair use (perceived as most deserving), to schizophrenia and back pain, fibromyalgia, depression and finally asthma (least deserving). Direct manipulations of deservingness-related characteristics also inf...
Living on a knife edge the responses of people with physical health conditions to changes in disability benefits, 2018
This article documents the experiences of people with a physical health condition or disability who have experienced a loss of or change in disability benefits under the welfare reform programme in the United Kingdom. A theoretical model was constructed using in-depth interviews and grounded theory methods. The findings show that participants experienced the benefits system as dehumanising, and felt that they lived in a judgemental and invalidating society, where they were perceived as ‘scroungers’ and faced discrimination from others. These experiences negatively affected their mental and physical health and wellbeing. They also negatively affected participants’ identity, leading to experiences of shame, hopelessness and social isolation. However, many participants attempted to resist these negative impacts (e.g. through seeking support or taking political action). The findings demonstrate the significant impact of benefit changes on well-being and identity, thus highlighting important implications for claimants, and staff in healthcare, the benefits system and government.
Welfare conditionality and disabled people in the UK: claimants’ perspectives
Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 2017
In common with most decisions of the Supreme Court, the judgment in R. (on the application of Carmichael) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2016] UKSC 58 tells two stories: a short version and a long version. This article outlines both. The short story is the immediate impact of the decision: the application of the high-bar 'manifestly without reasonable foundation test', a distinction drawn on 'transparent medical need', and the lack of regard given to international obligations under the UNCRPD and the UNCRC. The long story is how this decision fits into the 'cut-and-devolve' approach to welfare reform in the UK, where local authorities are left to mitigate the effects of centrally determined benefit reductions without adequate support. After outlining the basis of the decision and its likely effects, this article argues that the decision does little to square this key structural circle at the heart of the UK government's welfare reform agenda.
Social Policy and Society, 2012
The focus of this article is on the ways in which emotions are engaged in the discursive construction and treatment of disabled people in receipt of social security benefits. The article draws upon the literature related to the social importance of emotions and that concerned with moral boundary drawing. It argues that the evocation of emotional reactions is crucial in understanding the ways in which changes to out-of-work benefits for disabled people (the development of Employment and Support Allowance) have recently been effected and the ways in which this has reflected a desire to more closely denote those judged able and not able to work in a redrawing of the ‘disability category’. While this has been done in the name of ‘inclusion’, the article concludes that its consequences are, in various ways, the ‘exclusion’ and stigmatisation of disabled people.