Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-05T22:29:55.223Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Fit-for-Work – or Work Fit for Disabled People?1 The Role of Changing Job Demands and Control in Incapacity Claims

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2014

BEN BAUMBERG*
Affiliation:
School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, Cornwallis North East, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NF email: b.p.baumberg@kent.ac.uk

Abstract

It remains a puzzle as to why incapacity claims rose in many OECD countries when life expectancy was increasing. While potentially due to hidden unemployment and policy failure, this paper tests a further explanation: that work has become more difficult for disabled workers. It focuses on the UK as a ‘most likely’ case, given evidence of intensification and declining control at work. To get a more objective measure of working conditions, the models use average working conditions in particular occupations, and impute this into the British Household Panel Survey. The results show that people in low-control (but not high-demands) jobs are more likely to claim incapacity benefits in the following year, a result that is robust to a number of sensitivity analyses. Deteriorating job control seems to be a part of the explanation for rising incapacity, and strategies to cut the number of incapacity claimants should therefore consider ways to improve job control. Given the challenges in changing job characteristics, however, an equally important implication is that high levels of incapacity should not just be seen as a result of poor policies and a lack of jobs, but also as a result of the changing nature of work.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

The title is adapted from a quote by Annie Irvine (2011: 766 – see Conclusions).

References

Alavinia, S., de Boer, A., van Duivenbooden, J., Frings-Dresen, M. and Burdorf, A. (2009), ‘Determinants of work ability and its predictive value for disability’, Occupational Medicine, 59: 32–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anyadike-Danes, M. and McVicar, D. (2008), ‘Has the boom in Incapacity Benefit claimant numbers passed its peak?’, Fiscal Studies, 29: 415–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Autor, D.H. (2011), ‘The unsustainable rise of the disability rolls in the United States: causes, consequences, and policy options’, MIT Department of Economics Working Paper No:12–01.Google Scholar
Baumberg, B. (2011a), ‘The role of increasing job strain in deteriorating fitness-for-work and rising incapacity benefit receipt’, Ph.D. thesis, The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).Google Scholar
Baumberg, B. (2011b), ‘Self-reported fitness-for-work in Britain: trends and implications’, in Vickerstaff, S., Phillipson, C. and Wilkie, R. (eds.), Work, Health and Well-being: The Challenges of Managing Health at Work, Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Baumberg, B., Bell, K. and Gaffney, D. (2012), Benefits Stigma in Britain, London: Elizabeth Finn Care/Turn2us.Google Scholar
Beatty, C. and Fothergill, S. (2005), ‘The diversion from “unemployment” to “sickness” across British regions and districts’, Regional Studies, 39: 837–54.Google Scholar
Beatty, C., Fothergill, S. and Macmillan, R. (2000), ‘A theory of employment, unemployment and sickness’, Regional Studies, 34: 617–30.Google Scholar
Blekesaune, M. and Solem, P. E. (2005), ‘Working conditions and early retirement: a prospective study of retirement behavior’, Research on Aging, 27: 3.Google Scholar
Borsch-Supan, A. and Roth, H. (2010), Work Disability and Health over the Life Course, Working Paper 228-2010, Mannheim: Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging.Google Scholar
Bratsberg, B., Fevang, E. and Røed, K. (2010), ‘Disability in the welfare state: an unemployment problem in disguise?’, Discussion Paper 4897, IZA, Bonn.Google Scholar
Burkhauser, R. V., Goodman, N. and Houtenville, A. J. (2003), ‘Have changes in the nature of work or the labor market reduced employment prospects of workers with disabilities?’, in Stapleton, D. C. and Burkhauser, R. V. (eds.), The Decline in Employment of People with Disabilities: A Policy Puzzle, Kalamazoo, Michigan: WE Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.Google Scholar
Chan, T. W. and Goldthorpe, J. H. (2007), ‘Class and status: the conceptual distinction and its empirical relevance’, American Sociological Review, 72: 512–32.Google Scholar
Chandola, T. (2010), Stress at Work, London: British Academy Policy Centre.Google Scholar
Christenfeld, N., Sloan, R., Carroll, D. and Greenland, S. (2004), ‘Risk factors, confounding, and the illusion of statistical control’, Psychosomatic Medicine, 66: 868–75.Google Scholar
Christensen, K. B., Feveile, H., Labriola, M. and Lund, T. (2008), ‘The impact of psychosocial work environment factors on the risk of disability pension in Denmark’, European Journal of Public Health, 18: 235–7.Google Scholar
Claussen, B. and Dalgard, S. (2009), ‘Disability pensioning: the gender divide can be explained by occupation, income, mental distress and health’, Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 37: 590–7.Google Scholar
Conley, H. (2012), ‘Review of Guy Standing, “The Precariat”’, Work, Employment and Society, 26: 4, 686–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CSDH (2009), ‘Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health’, Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH), World Health Organization.Google Scholar
Cui, J. (2007), ‘QIC program and model selection in GEE analyses’, The Stata Journal, 7: 209–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doogan, K. (2009), New Capitalism? The Transformation of Work, Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
DWP (2006), A New Deal for Welfare: Empowering People to Work, Cm 6730, London: The Stationery Office, for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).Google Scholar
DWP (2008a), No One Written Off: Reforming Welfare to Reward Responsibility [Public Consultation], Cm 7363, London: The Stationery Office, for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).Google Scholar
DWP (2008b), Raising Expectations and Increasing Support: Reforming Welfare for the Future, CM 7506, London: The Stationery Office, for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).Google Scholar
DWP (2009), Reforming the Medical Statement: Consultation on Draft Regulations, London: Health, Work and Wellbeing Directorate, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).Google Scholar
DWP (2010a), Building Bridges to Work: New Approaches to Tackling Long-Term Worklessness, Cm 7817, London: The Stationery Office, for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).Google Scholar
DWP (2010b), Universal Credit: Welfare That Works, Cm 7957, London: The Stationery Office, for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).Google Scholar
Eurofound (2009), Working Conditions in the European Union: Working Time and Work Intensity, Dublin: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound).Google Scholar
Feldman, J. (1983), ‘Work ability of the aged under conditions of improving mortality’, Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, 61: 430–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fevre, R. (2007), ‘Employment insecurity and social theory: the power of nightmares’, Work, Employment and Society, 21: 517–35.Google Scholar
Foster, D. and Wass, V. (In press), ‘Disability in the labour market: an exploration of concepts of the ideal worker and organisational fit that disadvantage employees with impairments’, Sociology.Google Scholar
Franche, R.-L., Cullen, K., Clarke, J., Irvin, E., Sinclair, S., Frank, J., et al. (2005), ‘Workplace-based return-to-work interventions: a systematic review of the quantitative literature’, Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, 15: 607–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freud, D. (2010), ‘Speech to Health, Work and Well-Being Specialists’, 14 October 2010, DWP Ministerial Speeches, London.Google Scholar
Friis, K., Ekholm, O. and Hundrup, Y. A. (2008), ‘The relationship between lifestyle, working environment, socio-demographic factors and expulsion from the labour market due to disability pension among nurses’, Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 22: 241–8.Google Scholar
Green, F. (2006), Demanding Work: The Paradox of Job Quality in an Affluent Economy, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Green, F. (2009), Job Quality in Britain, Praxis 1, London: UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES).Google Scholar
Hagen, K. B., Tambs, K. and Bjerkedal, T. M. (2002), ‘A prospective cohort study of risk factors for disability retirement because of back pain in the general working population’, Spine, 27: 1790–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Halvorsen, K. (2002), ‘Solidarity and the legitimacy of the welfare state: attitudes to abuse of welfare benefits in the Scandinavian countries’, COST A13 Project meeting, Changing Labour Markets, Welfare Policies and Citizenship, Florence, 31 May 2002–1 June 2002.Google Scholar
Haukenes, I., Mykletun, A., Knudsen, A. K., Hansen, H.-T. and Maeland, J. G. (2011), ‘Disability pension by occupational class – the impact of work-related factors: the Hordaland Health Study Cohort’, BMC Public Health, 11: 406.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Houston, D. and Lindsay, C. (2010), ‘Fit for work? Health, employability and challenges for the UK welfare reform agenda’, Policy Studies, 31: 133–42.Google Scholar
Irvine, A. (2011), ‘Fit for work? The influence of sick pay and job flexibility on sickness absence and implications for presenteeism’, Social Policy and Administration, 45: 752–69.Google Scholar
Johansson, G. and Lundberg, I. (2004), ‘Adjustment latitude and attendance requirements as determinants of sickness absence or attendance. empirical tests of the illness flexibility model’, Social Science and Medicine, 58: 1857–68.Google Scholar
Jones, A. M., Rice, N. and Robone, S. (2011), ‘Contractual conditions, working conditions, health and well-being in the British Household Panel Survey’, European Journal of Health Economics, 12: 5, 429–44.Google Scholar
Kemp, P. A., Sunden, A. and Tauritz, B. (eds.) (2006), Sick Societies? Trends in Disability Benefits in Post-Industrial Welfare States, Geneva: International Social Security Association.Google Scholar
Kivimaki, M., Vahtera, J., Kawachi, I., Ferrie, J., Oksanen, T., Joensuu, M., et al. (2010), ‘Psychosocial work environment as a risk factor for absence with a psychiatric diagnosis: an instrumental-variables analysis’, American Journal of Epidemiology, 172: 167–72.Google Scholar
Kivimäki, M., Virtanen, M., Elovainio, M., Kouvonen, A., Vaananen, A. and Vahtera, J. (2006), ‘Work stress in the etiology of coronary heart disease – a meta-analysis’, Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health, 32: 431–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kolstad, H. A., Hansen, Å. M., Kærgaard, A., Thomsen, J. F., Kaerlev, L., Mikkelsen, S., et al. (2011), ‘Job strain and the risk of depression: is reporting biased?’, American Journal of Epidemiology, 173: 94102.Google Scholar
Koning, P. and Van Vuuren, D. (2007), ‘Hidden unemployment in disability insurance’, LABOUR, 21: 611–36.Google Scholar
Krause, N., Lynch, J., Kaplan, G., Cohen, R., Goldberg, D. and Salonen, J. T. (1997), ‘Predictors of disability retirement’, Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health, 23: 403–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krokstad, S., Johnsen, R. and Westin, S. (2002), ‘Social determinants of disability pension’, International Journal of Epidemiology, 31: 1183–91.Google Scholar
Laine, S., Gimeno, D., Virtanen, M., Oksanen, T., Vahtera, J., Elovainio, M., et al. (2009), ‘Job strain as a predictor of disability pension: the Finnish Public Sector Study’, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 63: 2430.Google Scholar
Landsbergis, P., Cahill, J. and Schnall, P. L. (1999), ‘The impact of lean production and related new systems of work organization on worker health’, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 4: 108–30.Google Scholar
Lund, T., Iversen, L. and Poulsen, K. B. (2001), ‘Work environment factors, health, lifestyle and marital status as predictors of job change and early retirement in physically heavy occupations’, American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 40: 161–9.Google Scholar
Maltby, T. (2011), ‘Extending working lives? Employability, work ability and better quality working lives’, Social Policy and Society, 10: 299308.Google Scholar
McCann, L. (2009), ‘The isolated professional: conflict, fragmentation and overload in UK financial services’, in Howcroft, D. and Richardson, H. (eds.), Work and Life in the Global Economy: A Gendered Analysis of Service Work, Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
McVicar, D. (2008), ‘Why have UK disability benefit rolls grown so much?’, Journal of Economic Surveys, 22: 114–39.Google Scholar
McVicar, D. (2009), Local Level Incapacity Benefits Rolls in Britain: Correlates and Convergence, Belfast: Queen's University School of Management, Queen's University Belfast.Google Scholar
Mundlak, Y. (1978), ‘On the pooling of time series and cross section data’, Econometrica, 46: 6985.Google Scholar
OECD (2003), Transforming Disability into Ability: Policies to Promote Work and Income Security for Disabled People, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
OECD (2010a), Sickness, Disability and Work: Breaking the Barriers, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
OECD (2010b), Sickness, Disability and Work: Breaking the Barriers – A Synthesis of Findings across OECD Countries, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
OECD (2012), Sick on the Job? Myths and Realities about Mental Health and Work, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Olsen, K., Kalleberg, A. L. and Nesheim, T. (2010), ‘Perceived job quality in the United States, Great Britain, Norway and West Germany, 1989–2005’, European Journal of Industrial Relations, 16: 221–40.Google Scholar
Payne, J. and Keep, E. (2003), ‘Re-visiting the Nordic approaches to work re-organization and job redesign: lessons for UK skills policy’, Policy Studies, 24: 205–25.Google Scholar
PMSU (2005), Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People: Final Report, London: Prime Minister's Strategy Unit with DWP, DH, DfES and ODPM.Google Scholar
Rubery, J. and Grimshaw, D. (2001), ‘ICTs and employment: the problem of job quality’, International Labour Review, 140: 165–92.Google Scholar
Sainsbury, R., Irvine, A., Aston, J., Wilson, S., Williams, C. and Sinclair, A. (2008), ‘Mental health and employment’, Department for Work and Pensions Research Report No 513.Google Scholar
Schnall, P., Landsbergis, P. and Baker, D. (1994), ‘Job strain and cardiovascular disease’, Annual Review of Public Health, 15: 381411.Google Scholar
Schwartz, J. E., Pieper, C. F. and Karasek, R. A. (1988), ‘A procedure for linking psychosocial job characteristics data to health surveys’, American Journal of Public Health, 78: 904–9.Google Scholar
Sennett, R. (1998), The Corrosion of Character, New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Standing, G. (2011), The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class, London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Stansfeld, S. and Candy, B. (2006), ‘Psychosocial work environment and mental health – a meta-analytic review’, Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health, 32: 443–62.Google Scholar
Stattin, M. and Jarvholm, B. (2005), ‘Occupation, work environment and disability pension: a prospective study of construction workers’, Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 33: 8490.Google Scholar
Theorell, T., Tsutsumi, A., Hallquist, J., Reuterwall, C., Hogstedt, C., Fredlund, P., Emlund, N., Johnson, J. and SHEEP Study Group (1998), ‘Decision latitude, job strain and myocardial infarction: a study of working men in Stockholm’, American Journal of Public Health, 88: 3, 382–8.Google Scholar
Vahtera, J., Laine, S., Virtanen, M., Oksanen, T., Koskinen, A., Pentti, J., et al. (2010), ‘Employee control over working times and risk of cause-specific disability pension: the Finnish Public Sector Study’, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 67: 479–85.Google Scholar
van Der Wel, K. A., Dahl, E. and Birkelund, G. E. (2010), ‘Employment inequalities through busts and booms: the changing roles of health and education in Norway 1980–2005’, Acta Sociologica, 53: 355–70.Google Scholar
Weeden, K. A. (2005), ‘Stata algorithm for backcoding 2000 Census occupation codes into 1990 Census occupation codes’, Department of Sociology, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Whitehead, M., Clayton, S., Holland, P., Drever, F., Barr, B., Gosling, R., et al. (2009), ‘Helping chronically ill or disabled people into work: what can we learn from international comparative analyses?’, Final report to the Public Health Research Programme, Department of Health.Google Scholar
Wise, D. A. (ed.) (2012), Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: Historical Trends in Mortality and Health, Employment, and Disability Insurance Participation and Reforms, Chicago: University of Chicago Press for NBER.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Baumberg Supplementary Material

Appendix

Download Baumberg Supplementary Material(File)
File 84.2 KB