Understanding the health and employment support needs of the Scottish working age population

Our research

This project brings together pseudo-anonymised information about welfare benefits with health data, to better understand the impacts of job quality, worklessness and welfare reform on public health and health inequalities. This includes investigating the health consequences of different welfare policies in the UK and the implications for health inequalities.

Project Phases

There are three phases to this project:

• In the first phase, Registration and Population Interaction Database (RAPID), which has information on all types of benefits administered by the DWP (e.g. Job seekers Allowance and Universal Credit), employment and earnings is being linked to health information (e.g. dates and causes of death, reasons for hospital attendance) for working age adults in Scotland. In this phase, we aim to assess the health needs of people claiming different types of benefits over time following the onset of a long-term health condition.
• In the second phase, we aim to investigate the transitions to and from welfare benefits and health (and vice versa) - for example, by studying the effects of experiencing a new health condition on likelihood of needing welfare benefits.
• In the third phase, we evaluate the health impacts of specific recent UK welfare reforms (such as the replacement of Incapacity benefits with Employment and Support Allowance), considering them as specific natural experiments.

Data this research aims to link and analyse

• DWP Registration and Population Interaction Database (RAPID)
• Hospitalisations, deaths and prescriptions data

Potential Public and Policy Benefit

Our research will help plan services and inform policy improvements. There is increasing interest in co-locating health and welfare services, allowing joint interventions to be developed. Our research will inform the design of welfare policies by contributing to improve our understanding of both the labour market and health impacts of welfare policies in Scotland and the UK.

Research team:

Professor Vittal Katikireddi (Project Co-Lead) Dr Serena Pattaro (Project Co-Lead), Professor Nick Bailey and Dr Aizhan Kyzayeva.

This project is part funded by the Health Foundation, Medical Research Council (MRC), and the Economic & Social Research Council(ESRC).