The relationship between NHS waiting lists and health-related benefit claims

In recent years, there has been a large increase in health-related benefit claims in England, the underlying causes of which are still not well understood. The concurrent increase in NHS waiting lists and waiting times has been suggested as one possible contributing factor. In this report, we present – to our knowledge – the most detailed analysis to date of the relationship between NHS waits and health-related benefit claims in England. We develop a methodology to estimate NHS waiting lists and waiting times for elective (pre-planned) hospital care at a narrower geographic level than previously possible. This allows us to compare local changes in NHS waiting lists and waiting times with local changes in the number of claims for disability and incapacity benefits by adults of working age. Although the nature of our analysis means that we cannot conclusively and definitively rule out a relationship between the two, our findings strongly indicate that increases in NHS waiting times and waiting lists for pre-planned hospital treatment and some mental health treatment have not been a major factor behind the large increase in the number of working-age adults claiming health-related benefits.