Falling Incapacity Benefit claims in a former industrial city: policy impacts or labour market improvement?

This article provides an in-depth study of Incapacity Benefit (IB) claims in a major city and of the factors behind their changing level. It relates to the regime prior to the introduction of the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) in 2008. Glasgow has had one of the highest levels of IB in Britain with a peak of almost one fifth of the working age population on IB or Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA). However, over the past decade the number of IB claimants in Glasgow, as in other high claiming areas, has fallen at a faster rate than elsewhere, and Glasgow now has twice the national proportion of working-age people on IB/SDA rather than its peak of three times. The rise in IB in Glasgow can be attributed primarily to deindustrialisation; between 1971 and 1991, over 100,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in the city. Policy response was belated. Lack of local statistics on IB led to a lengthy delay in official recognition of the scale of the issue, and targeted programmes to divert or return IB claimants to work did not begin on any scale until around 2004. Evidence presented in the article suggests that the reduction in claims, which has mainly occurred since about 2003, has been due more to a strengthening labour market than to national policy changes or local programmes. This gives strong support to the view that excess IB claims are a form of disguised unemployment. Further detailed evaluation of ongoing programmes is required to develop the evidence base for this complex area. However, the study casts some doubt on the need for the post-2006 round of IB reforms in high-claim areas, since rapid decline in the number of claimants was already occurring in these areas. The article also indicates the importance of close joint working between national and local agencies, and further development of local level statistics on IB claimants

UK Polish migrant attitudes toward deceased organ donation: findings from a pilot study

There is a critical shortage of transplantable organs in the UK. At present, there is no literature on Polish migrants’ (the fastest growing community in the UK) attitudes toward organ donation. This is the first study to explore the views of the Polish community towards organ donation in the UK. There were 31 participants that took part in semi-structured interviews or small focus groups to discuss organ donation for approximately 1½–2 h. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using grounded theory methods to elicit thematic categories and sub-categories. Overall, participants had a positive attitude towards organ donation but demonstrated a lack of knowledge about the organ donation systems and processes in the UK and wanted to learn more about these issues. As little detailed data on ethnicity is collected on the NHS Organ Donor Register and on the active transplant waiting list, it is currently unclear as to how organ donation affects the Polish community living in the UK. However, the findings of the study highlight the Polish community could benefit from tailored education for a clearer understanding of organ donation processes and systems in the UK and registering as an organ donor

The Implications of Ageing and Migration for the Future Population, Health, Labour Force and Households of Northern England

Northern England faces important demographic challenges over the next 25 years: population ageing, a more ethnically diverse society, moderate demographic growth but with large differences between most and least successful localities. We examine past and future demographic changes in Northern England and their effect on population health, labour force size and household numbers, drawing out implications for public policy. We use new projections for England's local authority (LA) populations by ethnicity from 2001 to 2036. The population of Northern England will grow between 8 % and 12 %, depending on projection scenario. So, aggregate demand for goods and services in Northern England will continue to increase. The population will experience, however, rising old age dependency ratios. To maintain current ratios, pension entitlement age will need to increase to 70 by 2036 rather than the 68 planned in the 2011 Pension Act. Population ageing will impact numbers with limiting long term illness, which will increase more than the population as a whole because the age structure will become older. A decrease in the labour force will occur as the baby boomers retire, if labour force participation rates remain constant. Action needs to be taken to encourage employers to introduce flexible transitions to retirement that reward older workers who wish to continue in work. We also project the numbers of households, which increase a little faster than the population because ageing shifts the population towards older ages where households are smaller

The neighbourhood effects of new immigration

Since the early 1990s global migration flows have become larger in scale and more varied in form. In the UK, controversy has surrounded this new phase of migration and it has often been assumed to be having a detrimental affect on the well-being of settled residents. Yet, there is dearth of information about the impacts of new immigration and what evidence does exist is curiously placeless, making it difficult to say anything about local effects. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap in understanding by outlining a framework to support the exploration of neighbourhood effects of new immigration. At its heart lies a commitment to three types of explanation for geographical variations in local experiences of new immigration: the individuals living in a place; the opportunity structures apparent in the local environment; and the sociocultural features of local communities