Lifting the lid on families, sickness benefits, and work

As the government prepares to set out its plans at next week’s Budget to tackle the UK’s rising sickness benefits bill[1], Action for Children reveals the key barriers to work and hardships facing the estimated 800,000 parents[2] who rely on these benefits to support their children.

With welfare spending on disabilities and sickness projected to reach £100billion by the end of the decade[3], the charity carried out a survey and in-depth interviews with parents on sickness (incapacity) benefits[4] to better understand the pressures they face and the potential solutions to getting more of them back into paid employment.

Among parents who felt their health or disability didn’t rule out work completely in the future, Action for Children found the most common barriers to returning to paid employment included:

• Being too unwell to work or work more right now (35%);
• Not getting the treatment they need from the NHS (23%);
• A lack of suitable or flexible jobs (23%);
• A lack of remote jobs (20%); and
• A fear of losing benefits if they try work (20%).

Despite commentary suggesting rising demand for incapacity benefits is being driven by a ‘sick note culture’ of people feeling ‘bluesy’ in response to normal everyday pressures[5], our findings suggest a far more complicated picture, with only 8 per cent of parent claimants reporting stress or anxiety to be their primary health condition. Overall, 29% of parents reported a mental health condition as their primary health condition.

Polling highlighted the financial impact of living on incapacity benefits was having on families, with:

• Only 12% of parents being able to keep up with all bills and credit commitments without any difficulties; and
• Nearly three in ten (29%) falling behind on bills, including one in seven (15%) experiencing severe financial problems.

Among parents who reported they were experiencing some difficulties:

• A third (32%) said their child had gone without new clothes or shoes when they needed them;
• Three in ten (30%) said their child had not always eaten as nutritiously as they would have liked; and
• One in seven (14%) said their child had not always eaten three meals a day.

One of the parents the charity interviewed said: "I use foodbanks. I try to eat just two meals a day rather than three. The local reverend has an unofficial foodbank, and sometimes he has food vouchers for Aldi, so when we're desperate for stuff we ask the local reverend. No, we don't have money. Forget new clothes. We don't have money for anything."

When asked how their work and health situation had affected their own emotional wellbeing in the past month:

• Half of parents (50%) receiving incapacity benefits felt worried or anxious about meeting bills or costs;
• Nearly half (48%) of parents felt down or depressed;
• More than four in ten (44%) were worried about the government making changes to their benefits; and about their children missing out on things due to their financial situation (45%).

Another parent said: "Oh, my lad needs a new pair of shoes for school, 'where the hell am I going to get the money for that?' And then it's like, well, he's having to wear shoes that are too tight for his feet, he's going to end up with ruined feet, and it's like, when you have kids, you want the very best for them, and you feel like you're failing them."

In the survey, 38% of parents who were on incapacity benefits and not in any form of paid work, said their health or disability rules out paid work completely. However, 42% thought they could return to paid work in the future, but this was dependent on their health improving and getting better support from the government and employers.

Among all parents on incapacity benefits, when asked what could help them to return to work in future:

• More than a third (36%) wanted investment in NHS mental health services;
• A third (33%) said bringing down NHS waiting lists;
• More than a quarter (26%) argued the public sector needed to create more flexible jobs for disabled people; and
• Nearly a quarter (23%) called for more specialist advisers in jobcentres.

Parents taking part in the research were frequently unhappy with their interactions with the DWP and the quality of support on offer for those who wanted to explore a return to work.

One parent surveyed said: "The DWP don’t seem to understand the seriousness of my condition or look at my personal situation. Without an understanding of the individual, they are going to cause damage by forcing me back into work before I am ready and then I will become more unwell, won’t be able to work and will be a greater burden on the NHS."

According to our survey:

• A third of parents on incapacity benefits did not feel like DWP staff took their circumstances into account (34%) and three in ten had felt pressured to enter work before they were ready (30%).
• We repeatedly heard from parents who felt staff were under-trained and lacked an understanding of their health condition. In some cases, these negative interactions caused parents’ health to deteriorate further.

Paul Carberry, Action for Children's Chief Executive

‘Trying to give your children the best start in life while managing a health condition or disability can be an incredibly difficult thing in itself. Add to that the daily battle to make ends meet on benefits that barely cover the basics and it’s clear why so many families are in such a precarious position.'

‘Too many parents are having negative experiences when navigating the benefits system or asking for support from the DWP. Too often this seems to fall to pot luck, depending hugely on who they happen to speak to that day.'

‘Parents relying on these benefits routinely face real insecurity, juggling bills and debts while their children miss out on things most would regard as necessities. Our findings show many of these parents may never be well enough to work and it’s vital they are supported to live in security and dignity.'

‘It’s also clear that while there’s a significant number of parents who want to get back into work in future, this will require an enormous effort by the NHS, a reformed DWP, and from employers to give them the flexibility and support they need. ‘We want to see the government chart a new course at next week’s Budget, one based on positive engagement and recognition of the challenges families face and the support they need to overcome them.’

Action for Children is calling on the government to:

1. Invest in specialist advisors in the new Jobs and Careers Service to lead all contact with those who are out of work due to disability or ill-health.
2. Abandon proposals to abolish the Work Capability Assessment that would mean generalist work coaches decide what work requirements are applied to sick and disabled incapacity benefit claimants.
3. Strengthen the rules on flexible working for employees with health conditions and disabilities, and bring forward proposals for increasing the supply of highly flexible and remote working opportunities
4. Scrap the two-child limit and benefit cap policies, and increase the child element of Universal Credit to address the high levels of poverty and hardship in low-income families with children.

ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: Huw Beale, Media Manager, Action for Children –
07718 114 038 / [email protected]
Out of hours: 020 3124 0661 / [email protected]

NOTES TO EDITORS

Methodology

The findings in this report are based on a unique survey of parents in receipt of incapacity benefits, carried out in August 2024, and a series of in-depth interviews undertaken with parent claimants. We commissioned Find Out Now to survey parents who are claiming incapacity benefits. To reach a representative sample, they first surveyed 27,850 UK parents of dependent children (aged under 18) weighted to be nationally representative by age, gender and region (quotas derived from census data). From this, they derived a sample of 1,130 of UK parents who were claiming incapacity benefits. Fieldwork took place between 7 and 28 August 2024. In depth semi-structured interviews with seven parents were conducted online or over the phone during August and September.

1 IFS Green Budget 2024

2 We used the Family Resources Survey 2022/23 to produce an estimate of the number of parents in receipt of incapacity-related benefits, by grossing up the number of adults with dependent children in the survey in receipt of Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit LCWRA. Universal Credit LCWRA claimants were estimated based on receipt of Universal Credit where the adult is disabled and is not in work or unemployed and actively seeking work. The FRS is known to under-report receipt of benefits. The DWP has reported that the FRS estimate of the number of claims for Universal Credit is 30% lower than the total in DWP administrative data, while the FRS estimate of the number of claims for ESA is 34% lower than the administrative total. Our FRS estimates have therefore been scaled up to adjust for this under-counting. This gives a figure of 170,000 parents of dependent children in receipt of Employment and Support Allowance and 634,000 parents receiving Universal Credit LCWRA, or 804,000 in total.

3 IFS Green Budget 2024

4 According to our survey:

• The majority of parents receiving incapacity benefits are claiming Universal Credit with Limited Capability for Work and Work Related Activity (66%).
• A quarter are receiving income-based Employment and Support Allowance (23%).
• The remaining 12% of claimants are receiving contributory or New Style Employment and Support Allowance.

We also asked parents if they were claiming Personal Independence Payment (PIP) – the main adult disability benefit that provides non-means tested financial support to disabled people to help them with the extra costs of their disability.

• Half of parents receiving incapacity benefits are also claiming PIP (50%).
• 45% of parents are not claiming PIP, and 5% selected ‘don’t know’.

5 The Telegraph (March 2024) ‘Mental health culture has gone too far, says Mel Stride’ and Financial Times (April 2024) ‘Is Britain suffering from a “sick note culture”?’