Elderly’s participation in disability benefits: targeting, timing and later outcomes

Abstract

This paper analyses receipt of Attendance Allowance (AA), the main disability benefit
available to older people in UK. Using seventeen waves of British Household Panel
Survey data, we first investigate to which extent entry into AA is responsive to changes
in potential claimants’ disability status, and to other personal characteristics that might
act as confounding factors in the targeting process. Second, we analyse the time gap
between the onset of disability and claiming. Third, we compare later outcomes of AA
recipients with those of an appropriately selected control group. Results indicate that
entry into AA is highly responsive to previous changes in disability status, and that AA
enhances recipients’ perceived financial wellbeing. However, considerable delays in
claiming are also found which, given the low life expectancy of disabled elderly, might
severely compromise the effectiveness of the program.