Centre for History in Public Health
Disability and Voluntarism,
1965-95 – An effective force
in policy making?
Gareth Millward – 3rd Year PhD (supervisor Dr Martin Gorsky)
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Project funded by the Wellcome Trust
Improving health worldwide
www.lshtm.ac.uk
A Simplified Time Line
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
DIG
DA
CCD
RADAR
BCRD
UPIAS
BCODP
Spastics
Society
Disabled
Persons
(Employment)
Act 1944
SCOPE
Disabled
Persons Act
CS & Disabled
Persons Act
International Year of
Disabled People
OPCS Survey
SJC
New invalidity
benefits
CORAD
Disabled
Persons
(SCaR) Act
Disability
Discrimination
Act
Civil Rights
Bills
Disability Working
and Living
Allowances
Personal
Capacity
Assessments
The social model
• Disability is a social issue
• Impairment only becomes
disability because society
makes it so
• A fair society would allow
impaired people the same
chances to live as
autonomously as nonimpaired people
Effective?
• Whiggish interpretation
– “progress” is made
• Excellent manipulation
of “problem” and
“politics”
• Poor at influencing
“solution”
The Times, 15th November 1971, p. 1.
Effective?
There has been a growing demand, of which that remarkable
organisation the Disablement Income Group has been the
spearhead, for special provision over and above what is already
given for anyone seriously handicapped on disablement. We have
all been deeply moved by the lives as well as the words of people
like Anne Armstrong and Megan du Boisson. Without them it
may well be that Clause 17 would never have found its place in
the Bill. The Government can claim credit for listening to people
who knew all too well what they were talking about.
Richard Crossman, 1970, Secretary of State for Social Services in the second reading of the National
Superannuation and Social Insurance Bill 1969. HC Deb 19 January 1970 vol. 794 c. 64.
Effective?
This money resolution arises because, as the result of great
ingenuity, amendments were carried in Committee which
brought disabled housewives into the position in which they
could have been paid out of the National Insurance Fund. That
ingenuity was, in fact, that of Mr. Peter Large and Mr. Stuart
Lyon, of the Disablement Income Group. They are well known to
hon. Members who follow this subject. They provided the
drafting for extremely carefully chosen amendments which (Mr.
Carter-Jones) and (Mr. Dunlop), were able to carry against the
Government votes in Committee.
Kenneth Clarke, 1975, opposition spokesman in committee on the Social Security Bill 1974. HC Deb 29
January 1975 vol. 885 c. 423.
Effective?
A leading article in ‘The Spectator’ was able to say that “of all the
pressure groups which harry government – especially the social
welfare pressure groups – none is more mature, more influential,
more considered in its actions than the Disablement Income
Group”. Whether this is true or not, this kind of belief has given
DIG both authority and charisma.
Internal DHSS Memo, 1972, TNA: BN 89/140, Study Group on Cash Benefits for the Disabled, CBD2,
The Disablement Income Group, 15 December 1972, paras. 1, 11.
Outcome Examples
• DDA employment sections did not apply to
businesses employing fewer than 20 people
• New capacity tests looked at medically
ascertainable functional limitations – not
disease nomenclature
• Benefits paid more equally based on need –
but still at levels far too low to alleviate poverty
Effective?
Weekly Rates of Selected Benefits 1960/61 - 2001/02, at 2002 Prices
£130.00
Invalidity Benefit
£120.00
£110.00
£100.00
£90.00
£80.00
£70.00
£60.00
£50.00
Incapacity Benefit (Long
Term)
Retirement Pension (Single
Person)
Unemployment Benefit
(Men, Single Women,
Widows)
Attendance Allowance
(Higher Rate) and Disability
Living Allowance (Care
Component, Higer Rate)
War Pension (Private, 100%)
£40.00
£30.00
Disablement Pension
(100%)
Effective?
Expenditure on Disability Benefits by Type of Benefit, at 1998 Prices
12000
10000
Expenditure (£ millions)
8000
Income
Replacement
6000
Extra Costs
Compensation
4000
2000
0
Effective?
We have very grave misgivings [...] about resources being
devoted to cultivating so-called wet Tory MPs or to direct
meetings with Conservative Ministers.
Against the backdrop of cuts and the onslaught on the welfare
state, it would be invidious for an organisation, which seeks to
represent the needs of disabled people, to help lend
respectability to the Government’s policies by sitting around the
table for discussions with Ministers.
Internal Disability Alliance memo, July 1983, Peter Townsend Collection, University of Essex.
Thanks!
• Gareth Millward
• www.vahs.org.uk (for the 40 minute version)
• gazmillward@hotmail.com
• history.lshtm.ac.uk