An ADRC-NI project linking Social Security Benefits and Census data to understand the health and social needs of disability benefits claimants

北方爱尔兰（NI）是英国处境最不利的地区之一，残疾和失业率很高，但它最依赖国家福利。2014年，每10名工作年龄人口中就有1人领取残疾人生活津贴（DLA），而英国这一比例为20分之1。北爱尔兰残疾生活津贴的高吸收率仍然无法解释，尽管精神健康状况较差（可能是内乱的结果）可能是部分原因，尽管申请人人数众多，但关于残疾生活津贴申请人的健康状况以及这与更广泛社区中的残疾关系的信息令人惊讶地缺乏。人们越来越认识到，多重残疾（或多重残疾）和精神健康状况不佳越来越重要。据认为，残疾生活津贴领取者的就业水平极低，远远低于残疾程度明显相似的其他人，但由于这些数据不是例行收集的，因此很少有资料说明这一水平如何因申领者比例或残疾类型和严重程度而变化。同样明显的是，许多人并不要求享受他们有权享受的福利，广告宣传和向可能的受益人提供免费福利支票的成功有限。很明显，需要改进针对潜在索赔人的证据基础，拟议研究的目的是生成关于残疾索赔人和非残疾索赔人的健康和社会相关信息，以便更好地了解计划引入个人独立付款的影响。我们的研究伙伴，社会发展部（DSD，负责NI的社会保障福利），已经表明，从研究中获得的更多知识将有助于制定未来的残疾政策（尽管国家I具体的PIP变化细节和实施时间表的不确定性）并将在确定所需的支持服务类型，从而使资源能够适当地使用方面发挥重要作用。拟议研究的总体目标是进行一项独特的探索性研究，将人口普查和DLA记录联系起来，回答三个重叠的研究问题，具体而言，（i）比较DLA受助人和非受助人之间的慢性病的类型和严重程度以及多重死亡的作用;（ii）确定哪些条件和条件组合与DLA受助人之间的就业相关，以及（iii）确定和估计影响NI DLA摄取的个人，家庭和地区因素。北爱尔兰2011年人口普查中广泛的残疾和特定条件的健康问题将被用作DLA需求的密切代理，并与福利申请人数据集进行比较，以确定区分申请人和非申请人的个人，家庭，社会和地区因素。将特别关注少数民族和移民中未满足需求的可能性，以及失业或财富是否会缓和需求与索赔之间的关系。该研究将是NI和DSD两所大学之间的合作伙伴关系;它将得到ADRC-NI的支持，这将促进数据链接和在安全环境中进行研究的去识别数据集的生成。渠务署会就效益数据库的结构和解释提供指引，并会促进知识转移和将研究结果纳入政策。如果成功，这项研究将是英国第一个将社会保障数据与其他常规行政数据集联系起来的研究，这一先例将为英国各地的其他研究人员开放这些数据集。该项目还将为ADRC-NI支持人员和相关研究人员提供重要的培训机会，包括指定的早期职业研究人员。

Northern Ireland (NI) is one of the most disadvantaged parts of the UK, with high levels of disability and joblessness, but it is the most dependent on state benefits. In 2014 one-in-ten of the working-age population was receiving Disability Living Allowance (DLA), compared to one-in-twenty for Great Britain. The higher uptake rate of DLA in NI remains unexplained though poorer mental health (possibly as a result of civil unrest) may be partly responsible.Despite the high number of claimants there is a surprising paucity of information about the health of DLA claimants and how this relates to disability in the wider community. There is a growing recognition that multiple disability (or multimorbidity) and poor mental health are increasingly important. Employment levels amongst DLA recipients are thought to be extremely low and much lower than other people with apparently similar levels of disability, but as these data are not routinely gathered there is little information about how this varies by rate of claimants or type and severity of disability. It is also evident that many people do not claim the benefits to which they are entitled and the success of advertising campaigns and offers of free benefits checks to possible beneficiaries has been limited. It is apparent that the evidence base for targeting potential claimants needs to be improved.The objective of the proposed research is to generate health and social-related information on both disability claimants and non-disability claimants to achieve a better understanding of the impact of the planned introduction of Personal Independence Payment (PIP). Our research partners, the Department for Social Development (DSD, which is responsible for Social Security Benefits in NI), have indicated that increased knowledge from the research will be instrumental in shaping future disability policy (regardless of the uncertain nature of the detail of the specific PIP changes in NI and the implementation timescale) and will be vital in identifying the type of support services required and therefore enable resources to be targeted appropriately.The overarching aim of the proposed research is to undertake a unique pathfinder study linking census and DLA records in order to answer three overlapping research questions, specifically, to (i) compare the types and severity of chronic conditions and the role of multimorbidity amongst DLA recipients and non-recipients; (ii) determine which conditions and combinations of conditions are associated with employment amongst DLA recipients, and (iii) identify and estimate the individual, household and area-level factors impacting DLA uptake in NI. The extensive disability and condition-specific health questions in the NI 2011 Census will be used as a close proxy for DLA need and comparison against the benefits claimant dataset will be used to identify the individual, household, social and area-level factors differentiating claimants and non-claimants. There will be a specific interest in the potential for unmet need amongst ethnic minorities and migrants and whether unemployment or wealth moderates the relationship between need and claims. The research will be a partnership between the two universities in NI and the DSD; it will be supported by the ADRC-NI, which will facilitate data linkage and the production of a de-identified dataset for research in a safe-setting. DSD will provide guidance on the structure and interpretation of the benefits database and will facilitate knowledge transfer and incorporation of the research findings into policy. If successful, this study would be the first in the UK to link social security data to other routine administrative datasets and this precedent would open up access to these datasets for other researchers throughout the UK. The project will also provide a significant training opportunity for ADRC-NI support staff and the associated researchers, including the named early career researcher.