title: Disabilities, benefits, and disability benefits.
abstract: The purpose of this paper is to relate the patterns of disabilities in a sample of young adults to the amounts they received in social security benefits towards extra arising from disablement. Data on 248 young people aged 18 to 22 who lived in England were obtained by means of interviews with their parents. There was wide variation in weekly amounts received in benefits for the extra costs of disablement. The most severely disabled did not receive invariably the highest levels of support and some disabilities were not associated with amounts received in benefits. The findings indicate that the United Kingdom social security system is biased towards meeting the extra costs which arise from physical disablement; costs which arise because of mental disablement attract less recognition. It is concluded that help with extra costs should be based on a comprehensive assessment of disablement and its financial consequences.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D006801:Humans; D012943:Social Security; D006113:United Kingdom