4 research outputs found
The health benefits of a targeted cash transfer: The UK Winter Fuel Payment.
Each year, the UK records 25,000 or more excess winter deaths, primarily among the elderly. A key policy response is the "Winter Fuel Payment" (WFP), a labelled but unconditional cash transfer to households with a member above the female state pension age. The WFP has been shown to raise fuel spending among eligible households. We examine the causal effect of the WFP on health outcomes, including self-reports of chest infection, measured hypertension, and biomarkers of infection and inflammation. We find a robust, 6 percentage point reduction in the incidence of high levels of serum fibrinogen. Reductions in other disease markers point to health benefits, but the estimated effects are less robust
How does the mental health and wellbeing of teachers compare to other professions? Evidence from eleven survey datasets
There is growing concern about the mental health and wellbeing of teachers globally, with the stress caused by the job thought to be a key factor driving many to leave the profession. It is often claimed that teachers have worse mental health and wellbeing outcomes than other occupational groups. Yet academic evidence on this matter remains limited, with some studies supporting this notion, while a handful of others do not. We contribute to this debate by providing the largest, most comprehensive analysis of differences in mental health and wellbeing between teachers and other professional workers to date. Drawing upon data from across 11 social surveys, we find little evidence that teachers have worse health and wellbeing outcomes than other occupational groups. Research in this area must now shift away from whether teachers are disproportionately affected by such issues towards strengthening the evidence on the likely drivers of mental ill‐health within the education profession