Social inequalities in the receipt of welfare benefits and the impact of mental and neurological disorders: a big data project.

"Background Mental health problems are one of the main reasons for people to fall out of work and claim unemployment or disability benefits.

As such it is important that future research explores patterns and trends over time at a population level, particularly directed at more vulnerable groups of our society, for example, those accessing mental health services and racial and ethnic minority groups.

However, to date there has been little interchange of individual level health and benefits data, hampering the establishment of a much needed, robust quantitative evidence base. Using two novel linked data sources, this PhD will address this evidence gap.

Aims The proposed PhD will address four aims: 1) To explore patterns of unemployment, sickness and/or disability benefit receipt by ethnicity, marital status, country of birth, neighbourhood deprivation and smaller geographical areas among mental health care users between 2007-2019 and by Borough. 2) To determine the annual age and sex standardized rates of unemployment, sickness or disability benefit receipt among working-age adults in England and Wales in 2011 and explore how these standardized rates vary across population groups (e.g., ethnicity, disability, marital status, carer status, country of birth, general health, socio-economic status). 3) To determine the annual age and sex standardized rates of unemployment, sickness or disability benefit receipt among secondary mental health care users and how this compares to the working-age adult population in England and Wales. 4) To link data of benefits up take in the relevant Borough, and in smaller geographical areas of strategic interest to the Borough, with use of council/council partner resources, and explore the connections between macro-economic data relating to inequalities and operational work undertaken by the Lambeth Skills and Employment Team as well as other connected teams across the council.

These aims have been jointly developed with the Skills and Employment Team and the Public Health Team at the London Borough of Lambeth (our PhD project partner) and three members with lived experience of navigating the welfare and mental healthcare system.

As such, we are confident the aims address an important knowledge gap, are of interest to those who engage with or work within the welfare and health system maximising the opportunities for impact across different areas of policy and service delivery. Methodology Design: secondary data analysis project that will embed cross-sectional and longitudinal study designs.

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