Effects of social security policy reforms on mental health and inequalities: A systematic review of observational studies in high-income countries

Simpson, Julija; Albani, Viviana; Bell, Zoë; Bambra, Clare; Brown, Heather

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113717

Cited by 64 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 80 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…An additional area where we found either inconsistent or limited evidence concerns child well-being, including educational and health outcomes. A recent review on the effects of social security reforms on mental health in high-income countries has reached similar conclusions concerning child health outcomes and acknowledged that these have important implications for health, education and employment opportunities of children as they progress through different stages of their life course (Simpson et al, 2021).…”

Section: Literature Gapsmentioning

confidence: 93%

The impacts of benefit sanctions: a scoping review of the quantitative research evidence

Pattaro¹,

Bailey²,

Williams³

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In recent decades, the use of conditionality backed by benefit sanctions for those claiming unemployment and related benefits has become widespread in the social security systems of high-income countries. Critics argue that sanctions may be ineffective in bringing people back to employment or indeed harmful in a range of ways. Existing reviews largely assess the labour market impacts of sanctions but our understanding of the wider impacts is more limited. We report results from a scoping review of the international quantitative research evidence on both labour market and wider impacts of benefit sanctions. Following systematic search and screening, we extract data for 94 studies reporting on 253 outcome measures. We provide a narrative summary, paying attention to the ability of the studies to support causal inference. Despite variation in the evidence base and study designs, we found that labour market studies, covering two thirds of our sample, consistently reported positive impacts for employment but negative impacts for job quality and stability in the longer term, along with increased transitions to non-employment or economic inactivity. Although largely relying on non-experimental designs, wider-outcome studies reported significant associations with increased material hardship and health problems. There was also some evidence that sanctions were associated with increased child maltreatment and poorer child well-being.

show abstract

Section: Literature Gapsmentioning

confidence: 93%

The impacts of benefit sanctions: a scoping review of the quantitative research evidence

Pattaro¹,

Bailey²,

Williams³

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…", and "You would take early retirement and stop working three years before your statutory retirement age?" Respondents answered how they thought people in their surroundings would react on a scale from "Very negatively" (1) to "Very positively" (5).…”

Section: Dependent Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, research of recent date that has focused on the effects of increasing retirement ages shows the potential of looming social and economic inequalities at higher ages. The inequalities may be a result of the different health consequences [ 4 , 5 ] and the ability to cope with mental and physical challenges, especially in physically demanding jobs [ 6 ]. But the inequalities can also be generated by the lack of information or awareness of pending policy reforms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Employees’ Emotional, Cognitive, and Behavioral Responses to Increasing Statutory Retirement Ages

Mulders

Henkens

Dalen

2021

BioMed Research International

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Increasing statutory retirement ages around the world are forcing employees to prolong their working lives. We study the different ways in which mid- and late-career workers respond to such changes. We distinguish between negative emotions about working longer, cognitive engagement with prolonged employment, and proactive behavior to facilitate longer working lives. We analyze data from 1,351 employees aged 40-66 from the Netherlands. We estimate a structural equation model to identify in which ways experiences of age discrimination, accessibility of accommodative HR facilities, and social norms in the workers’ social networks are related to the three different types of responses. Results show that when employees do not experience age discrimination, when their employer offers easily accessible accommodative HR facilities, and the social norms support prolonged employment, employees have fewer negative emotional reactions and are more likely to behaviorally respond to facilitate longer working lives. When these contexts are misaligned, the reverse is generally found. We also find socioeconomic differences in the ways employees respond to the prospect of prolonged employment. This study shows the importance of supportive contexts at different levels—societally, in organizations, and in individuals’ own lives—for policy changes such as increasing statutory retirement ages to be effective. Different responses between different socioeconomic groups may lead to growing long-term inequality.

show abstract

“…Finally, a seemingly unconvincing relationship between income changes and mental health at a population level may mask differential impacts in population subgroups, particularly for those of lower socioeconomic position (SEP) ( Owusu-Addo et al, 2018 ; Simpson et al, 2021 ). It is plausible that there is both a threshold effect and effect modification by SEP, i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Which is most important for mental health: Money, poverty, or paid work? A fixed-effects analysis of the UK Household Longitudinal Study

Kromydas

Thomson

Pulford

et al. 2021

SSM - Population Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background The relative importance of income, poverty and unemployment status for mental health is unclear, and understanding this has implications for income and welfare policy design. We aimed to assess the association between changes in these exposures and mental health. Methods We measured effects of three transition exposures between waves of the UK Household Longitudinal Study from 2010/11–2019/20 (n=38,697, obs=173,859): income decreases/increases, moving in/out of poverty, and job losses/gains. The outcome was General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), which measures likelihood of common mental disorder (CMD) as a continuous (GHQ-36) and binary measure (score ≥4 = case). We used fixed-effects linear and linear probability models to adjust for time invariant and time-varying confounders. To investigate effect modification, we stratified analyses by age, sex and highest education. Results A 10% income decrease/increase was associated with a 0.02% increase (95% CI 0.00, 0.04) and 0.01% reduction (95% CI -0.03, 0.02) in likelihood of CMD respectively. Effect sizes were larger for moving into poverty (+1.8% [0.2, 3.5]), out of poverty (−1.8%, [-3.2, −0.3]), job loss (+15.8%, [13.6, 18.0]) and job gain (−11.4%, [-14.4, −8.4]). The effect of new poverty was greater for women (+2.3% [0.8, 3.9] versus +1.2% [-1.1, 3.5] for men) but the opposite was true for job loss (+17.8% [14.4, 21.2] for men versus +13.5% [9.8, 17.2] for women). There were no clear differences by age, but those with least education experienced the largest effects from poverty transitions, especially moving out of poverty (−2.9%, [-5.7, −0.0]). Conclusions Moving into unemployment was most strongly associated with CMD, with poverty also important but income effects generally much smaller. Men appear most sensitive to employment transitions, but poverty may have larger impacts on women and those with least education. As the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, minimising unemployment as well as poverty is crucial for population mental health.

show abstract

Effects of social security policy reforms on mental health and inequalities: A systematic review of observational studies in high-income countries

Cited by 64 publications

References 80 publications

The impacts of benefit sanctions: a scoping review of the quantitative research evidence

The impacts of benefit sanctions: a scoping review of the quantitative research evidence

Employees’ Emotional, Cognitive, and Behavioral Responses to Increasing Statutory Retirement Ages

Which is most important for mental health: Money, poverty, or paid work? A fixed-effects analysis of the UK Household Longitudinal Study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About