Routes onto Incapacity Benefits: Findings from qualitative research

This report presents findings from a qualitative research project to investigate the routes by which people become recipients of incapacity benefits ('Incapacity benefits' include not only Incapacity Benefit itself, but also Income Support (IS) with disability premium, and National Insurance 'credit only' cases). The study was aimed at increasing our understanding of how people become Incapacity Benefit recipients so that further policy development can take place around more 'preventive' job retention and rehabilitation measures. Although producing standalone findings that can inform policy thinking, it is also the first stage in a two part project, the second part of which is a large quantitative survey of new Incapacity Benefit claimants to be conducted in 2006.