Killing Two Birds with One Stone

1
Killing Two Birds with One Stone

• Annual conference of the Health for All Network
  Common Health Common Wealth
• James Arnott
• Development Regeneration Services
• Glasgow City Council

2
Different Cultures

• New audience different perspectives
• Health/Social Care background individually-focuss
  ed
• Economic Development/Physical Planning
  background broad-brush
• Own language the same term often means something
  different

3
General Health Trends

• On many indicators things are improving
• Increased life expectancy
• Overall figures conceal pockets of disadvantage
• Urban trends Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool
  getting left behind
• Leeds and Sheffield closer to average

4
Economic/Employment Trends

• More jobs in most urban areas
• Increasing levels of employment
• Reductions in unemployment
• Virtually full employment in many areas London
  and the South-East, Edinburgh

5
Policy Consequences?

• Improving levels of health
• Reducing levels of unemployment
• Where are the particular problems?
• Cant we just let things carry on?

6
Health Issues

• Still have problem areas not just parts of
  cities, but whole cities
• High rates of Incapacity Benefit, Severe
  Disablement Allowance, Income Support Disability
• Legacy of industrialisation, also of structural
  unemployment

7
Economic Consequences

• High rates of health-related benefit dependency
• Crucially, among the working-age population
• Registered unemployed (Job Seekers Allowance)
  one in six of all claimants

8
Labour Demand

• Employers want labour
• Job-ready already in the labour market
• Employers looking for other groups students,
  women returners
• Use the situation to tackle long-term benefit
  dependency head-on

9
Benefit Dependency

• Perceive it as a temporary or long-term state
• Incapacity Benefit no incentive to enter labour
  market
• Adjust expectations downwards
• The irony is its a relatively good type of
  benefit

10
Circumstances

• Incapacity Benefit (Invalidity Benefit) is a
  disguised form of unemployment
• British Household Panel Survey Labour Force
  Survey want work estimates
• Reflected industrial change no jobs about
• Doesnt describe current situation

11
Back to Policy

• If employment rates are increasing
• Increasing opportunities to make transition from
  benefits into employment
• Particularly from health-related benefits if want
  work details bear scrutiny
• The question is how?

12
Bottom-Up Initiatives

• Base in local area
• Assess people in the want work category
• Mentoring, signposting, explaining and supporting
• Alongside statutory agencies
• Full Employment Initiative

13
What Wont Work

• Punitive measures
• Imposition from above
• Stick without the carrot
• In this context, look at in-work benefits
• See how it operates in the USA

14
Caveats

• Economic benefits of being in work
• Social costs of long-term benefit dependency
• Labour demand situations vary UK-wide
• Some people cant work even if theyd like to

15
Opportunity

• Use buoyant labour market to reduce
  health-related benefit dependency
• Supply creating its own demand?
• Job readiness linked to practical steps
• Health/social care culture face-to-face with
  economic development culture
• Pattern for the future