The legacy of the Northern Irish ‘Troubles’ and disability rolls

Anne Devlin, Declan French and Duncan McVicar

Social Science & Medicine, 2025, vol. 383, issue C

Abstract: Disability benefit recipiency rates have been persistently higher in Northern Ireland (NI) than the rest of the UK for decades. Receipt of Disability Living Allowance (DLA), a social security payment designed to cover the additional costs of living with a disability, was proportionally around twice as high in NI compared to the rest of the UK at its 2016 peak. This paper uses data from the Northern Ireland Cohort of Longitudinal Ageing survey to examine whether one potential contributory factor, exposure to the conflict, can explain variations in DLA receipt among older working-age people in Northern Ireland. Conflict-related fatality rates at the area level are used to account for potential endogeneity in reporting past exposure to trauma. While most of the NI population in the age bracket examined (50–64 years) were exposed to the conflict in some way, more intense exposure to the conflict is found to increase the likelihood of DLA receipt by 21 percentage points. We also find a substantial impact on mental ill health. This research has significant policy ramifications both in NI but also across the UK at a time of particular interest in disability benefit receipt as well as contributing to the wider post-conflict literature.

Keywords: Disability; Social security; Conflict exposure; Northern Ireland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D74 I18 I38 J14 R10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118447

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