Do welfare benefit reassessments of people with mental health conditions lead to worse mental health? A prospective cohort study

Ruth Stuart, Sanchika Campbell, Beatrice Osumili, Emily J Robinson, Mary Frost-Gaskin, Richard Pacitti, Paul McCrone and Claire Henderson

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2020, vol. 66, issue 2, 136-149

Abstract: Background: There have been cases of suicide following the Work Capability Assessment (WCA), a questionnaire and interview for those claiming benefits due to ill health or disability in the United Kingdom. Aims: To examine whether experiencing problems with welfare benefits, including WCA, among people with pre-existing mental health conditions was associated with poorer mental health and wellbeing and increased health service use and costs. Methods: A prospective cohort study of an exposed group ( n  = 42) currently seeking help from a Benefits Advice Service in London and a control group ( n  = 45) who had recently received advice from the same service. Questionnaires at baseline and 3-, 6- and 12-month follow-ups. Results: The exposed group had higher mean scores for anxiety ( p  = .008) and depression ( p  = .016) at baseline and the control group higher mean scores for wellbeing at baseline ( p  = .034) and 12 months ( p  = .035). However, loss to follow-up makes overall results difficult to interpret. The control group had higher incomes throughout the study, particularly at the 12-month follow-up ( p  = .004), but the differences could have been accounted for by other factors. Health service costs were skewed by a few participants who used day-care services intensively or had inpatient stays. Over the study period the proportion of exposed participants engaged in benefits reassessment ranged from 50% to 88%, and 40% to 76% of controls. Conclusion: The hardship of living with financial insecurity and a mental health condition made it difficult for our participants to sustain involvement in a 12-month study and the frequency of benefit reviews meant that the experiences of our controls were similar to our exposed group. These limitations limit interpretation but confirm the relevance of our research. The control data raise the question of whether people with mental health conditions are being disproportionately reassessed.

Keywords: Welfare benefits; disability benefits; work capability assessment; WCA; mental health condition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020764019888955 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:66:y:2020:i:2:p:136-149

DOI: 10.1177/0020764019888955

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Social Psychiatry
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().