Why are Disability Rates for Older Working-Age Adults in Northern Ireland So High?

Anne Devlin, Declan French and Duncan McVicar

The Economic and Social Review, 2023, vol. 54, issue 1, 1-28

Abstract: Northern Ireland has substantially higher rates of disability and disability benefit receipt than England, despite a common institutional context. This paper exploits newly available data from the NICOLA and ELSA surveys to examine potential health and labour market explanations for this gap, specifically among older working-age people. Observable differences in health and labour markets are sufficient to explain the gap in self-reported activity-limiting disability, but only half of the gap in worklimiting disability and income-replacement disability benefit receipt, and only one-third of the gap in additional costs disability benefit receipt. Possible reasons for these remaining unexplained gaps are discussed.

Keywords: disability; welfare; labour market; Northern Ireland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eso:journl:v:54:y:2023:i:1:p:1-28

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