Parsons, Sam; Platt, Lucinda; (2022) Special educational needs and disability: a lifetime of disadvantage in the labour market? (CLS Working Paper 2022/4). UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies: London, UK.

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Abstract

Disabled adults face substantial labour market disadvantage. There is, however, variation in employment and earnings by age and educational level. Since much disability occurs in later life, and labour market disadvantage can lead to disability as well as vice versa, we currently have limited understanding of how far disabled people’s current disadvantage represents the cumulative impact of disability. We also lack insight into how far policy changes have managed to reduce the gap for younger cohorts. These are the contributions of this paper. Using data from two British longitudinal studies we investigate economic outcomes in their mid-20s for those who were identified with a Special Education Need or disability (SEN(D)) when at secondary school in either the 1970s or 2000s. We find that by age 25, adults identified with SEN(D) while at school faced substantial employment disadvantage. The ‘gaps’ by SEN status were however smaller amongst the younger cohort. For the older cohort, and younger women, only part of the gap could be explained by differences in educational attainment and social background. We extended this picture to mid-life for the older cohort to illustrate the cumulative impacts of early identification with SEN(D). We discuss the implications of our findings.

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