The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) administers working age, disability and ill health benefits to approximately 20 million people annually. Considering that mental health problems are one of the main reasons for people to fall out of work and claim unemployment or disability benefits, it is important for us to understand patterns and trends in benefit receipt, particularly among more vulnerable groups of our society, including those with mental health problems or a disability. This PhD will explore how benefit receipt varies among groups of people, for example, people accessing mental health services, people from different racial and ethnic minority groups, people with caring responsibilities and those with a disability. The PhD will use two novel linked datasets that combine detailed benefits information derived from administrative records held by the DWP with either electronic mental health record data from people accessing secondary mental health or socio demographic and health data provided by people who took part in the 2011 Census. The PhD will benefit from the close collaboration with Lambeth Council who helped developed the PhD aims. Lambeth Council is a Borough in South London and they will provide a three-month placement, access to internal local authority datasets and Lambeth’s wide network of stakeholders and partners across institutions to support the dissemination of findings and network building. Lambeth is one of the most diverse boroughs in the country and is a place of world leading economic growth and innovation, although long-standing inequalities continues to effect marginalised and minoritized groups in the local community. The placement will be based with the Skills and Employment team, and will support the aims of Lambeth’s Skills and Employment Strategy to use labour market insight and intelligence to achieve our vision of Lambeth as a place where industry, educational and cultural institutions, the voluntary and public sectors come together to deliver a world class skills system and agile employment support that provide equitable opportunities for all. The aims of the PhD have been developed with the help of people with lived experience of navigating the welfare and healthcare system and their involvement will remain central over the course of this PhD. The findings of this research will help to identify groups who may benefit from more support navigating the benefits system, more tailored interventions to support return to work if they are able to as well as have the potential to inform future forecasting of benefits need across population groups and expenditure on a national level, regional and local level.
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