What does a just disability benefits bureaucracy look like and what effects might it have?

Title: Bureaucratic justice in disability benefits

Abstract: This paper explores what claimants consider to be a fair and legitimate process – what we term bureaucratic justice – when applying for disability benefits. The research examined experiences of Adult Disability Payment (ADP), which is administered in Scotland, and Personal Independence Payment (PIP), which is administered in the rest of the UK. A range of findings are reported, including the five core process factors that matter most to claimants’ perceptions of just treatment, that ADP is consistently rated less negatively than PIP, that assistance makes a difference to perceptions of just treatment, and that bureaucratically just processes are linked to both greater cooperation and better mental health outcomes.

Authors: Simon Halliday, Tunde Csoban Ruth Friskney, Gillian Macintyre, Jed Meers, Ben Seyd, and Joe Tomlinson

Link to paper: here.

Funder: The research was funded by Aberdeen Group Charitable Trust (registered charity number SC040877), under the Trust’s prior charitable name, abrdn Financial Fairness Trust.