Benefit cuts are responsible for ‘around a third’ of the gap in life expectancy in Scotland which has opened up over the past decade, a new study has found.

In a stark conclusion of welfare reform policies since 2012, the report’s authors say ‘fewer people would have died’ if the UK government had not cut the value of benefits paid to low-income households.

Asked for a response to the findings, a spokeswoman for the UK government said it had taken “significant steps” to support low-paid families and highlighted near record levels of employment across the UK.

By 2021 welfare cuts and tax changes will have cost every working-age Scottish adult £630 per year, though the impact will have been greatest on low income households.

Steady increases in life expectancy over the last 50 years began to stall in 2012, according to the research, which was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

While this occurred across many high-income countries, it was not seen everywhere, and the UK and USA were among the worst affected, the study says.

Lead study author Gerry McCartney, from Public Health Scotland, has previously called for social security payments to be increased, warning that poverty is “incredibly damaging for people’s health”.

Assessing the impact of changes such as the Bedroom Tax, the two-child limit for child benefit and limiting annual increases of tax credits, researchers say cuts are responsible for ‘about one third’ of the gap in life expectancy that has opened up.

Modelling suggests the squeeze on benefits shortened lives in the poorest areas by 31 weeks for women and 34 weeks for men.

The effects were much smaller in the wealthiest areas, though there was still a decline of ten weeks for females and 11 weeks for males.

Dr David Walsh, a researcher at the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, echoed the findings.

He said austerity measures have been “calamitous” for the most vulnerable across the UK, telling healthandcare.scot:

“International evidence has shown that such ‘austerity’ policies have been associated with increases in mortality across many countries, and importantly, the form of austerity in the UK (based on an astonishing scale of cuts to public spending) is known to be particularly ‘regressive’ i.e. impacting most on the poorest.

“Indeed, we know that a huge part of this overall ‘stalling’ of life expectancy is actually about increasing death rates among the most disadvantaged in society – and that’s true across the whole of the UK.

“In our wealthy society it’s simply not right that this should happening. In the words of the United Nations, in wealthy societies such as the UK, “poverty is a political choice”: what we are witnessing now is, tragically, the consequences of horrendous political choices made by the UK government since 2010.”

Dr David Walsh, who also lectures at the University of Glasgow, called on the UK government to “reintroduce” a safety net to protect the most vulnerable groups in society.

He added: “While this is a situation created by the UK government, the Scottish government could also help mitigate the worst effects of the UK government’s policies by using their own fiscal powers to increase levels of social security payments for those most affected by these unjust cuts.”

The modelling only considered income changes and not wider reforms to welfare, such as controversial new assessments for disability benefits or sanctions.

Nor did it look at positive health effects from more people being in work, though researchers say ‘even substantial’ job gains would be cancelled out by welfare cuts.

Freezes to benefits and tax credits were singled out as having the worst effect, followed by Universal Credit and changes to taxes such as VAT.

Increases to the personal tax-free working allowance only ‘partially’ compensated for these changes.

The study states: “This paper suggests that fewer people would have died, life expectancy would have been substantially higher and health inequalities narrower, had the tax and benefit ‘reforms’ introduced since 2010/2011 (and planned until 2021/2022) not been implemented.”

A UK government spokeswoman said Universal Credit was a fairer system than the old model and drew attention to high levels of employment in Scotland.

“The UK government has taken significant steps to support the lowest paid families, including raising the living wage, ending the benefit freeze and increasing work incentives. We remain committed to supporting the most vulnerable in society, which is why we currently spend over £95bn a year on the benefits system.

“We’ve injected over £9.3bn into the welfare system, including increasing Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit by up to £1,040 a year as well as introducing income protection schemes, mortgage holidays and additional support for renters.

“We are also investing billions in those looking for work, including our £2bn Kickstart scheme for young people.

“Meanwhile, Scotland has significant welfare powers and can top-up existing benefits, pay discretionary payments and create entirely new benefits altogether.”

 

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