Teenagers on a sickness benefit

MacDoctor makes mention of Professor Innes Asher hand-wringing over the rising number (Table SR.1) of teenagers on a sickness or invalid benefit. I pointed out that the majority of grants for an SB during 2007 were for pregnancy. But I suspect that overall the rise is because of the growing diagnosis/ incidence(?) of psychological and psychiatric disorders amongst teenagers. This is the cause for general growth across these benefits.

From my OIA file:



As MacDoctor points out Innes says;

“There was a large increase in the number of young people receiving the sickness and invalid benefit between 2002 and 2007 (the largest increase was in the 18-19 age group). “Why was there such an increase in young people on invalid and sickness benefits? How much is due to mental and physical disease as a result of the increase in child poverty?”

She refers to the increase in child poverty in the 1990s and those children now becoming young adults.

Yet statistics show;

June 1990 9.7 percent of sickness beneficiaries were aged 15-19
June 2009 5.4 percent of sickness beneficiaries were aged 16-19

Children of the 1970s were also victims of growing child poverty?

Incidentally, in 1990 67 percent of sickness beneficiaries aged 15-19 were unmarried women. Hint.