DEPARTMENT FOR WORK
AND PENSIONS News Release (DRC-048) issued by The Government News
Network on 16 October 2007
prepared by
the
DEPARTMENT FOR WORK AND PENSIONS
FAMILY POVERTY AND
WORK DIVISION
* Disability and Caring among Families with Children: Family
employment and poverty characteristics
* Health, disability, caring and employment
Two DWP research reports - Health, disability, caring and
employment AND Disability and Caring among Families with Children
are published today.
They are based on analysis of the Department's Families and
Children Study (and other surveys) and add to our knowledge about
how disability in the family interacts with income, employment and
caring behaviour.
A selection of the main findings include:
* Overall, disabled people are more likely to live alone and less
likely to be a parent of dependent1 children.
* Disabled
people also tend to be older as a group then non-disabled
people.
* Children are less likely to be reported as disabled
if they are living with a married couple, compared to those living
with cohabiting couples or lone parents.
* There is no marked
difference between the proportion of women and men with
responsibility for caring. The incidence of caring rises with age
until retirement then appears to drop.
* The presence of a
disabled child in a household was related to lower employment
rates for both lone and coupled mothers. It was particularly
related to participation in full-time work.
* The proportion
of workless couples is almost three times that of couples who do
not have a disabled child (13 per cent compared to five per
cent).
* The effect of being a carer appears to depress
incomes more than disability.
NOTES TO EDITORS
1 These reports will be in the DWP Research Series Report (nos.
460 and 461); see: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rrs-index.asp
2 The authors were from the University of Bristol and the
University of Birmingham
3 The Families and Children Study is a refreshed panel study of
approximately 7000 families in Britain, investigating the
circumstances of all families with dependent children. It covers a
range of topics including: health; disability and caring;
education; income; childcare; child maintenance; housing;
transport; and labour market activity.
4 The analysis also uses (i) The British Household Panel Survey -
a survey based at Essex University that has followed a group of
5500 households each year since 1991; (ii) Millennium Cohort Study
- follows families with children born in 2000-01 at regular intervals.
1 The definition of dependent child is a child aged under 16
years, or aged 16-19 in full time education.
DWP Website http://www.dwp.gov.uk