Airing Pain 8: Work and Benefits

Is work good for us? We discuss working with chronic pain and the benefits system

In the wake of the government’s introduction of the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) which will see all people already on incapacity benefits reassessed for their ability to work by 2014, Airing Pain discusses benefit reforms as well as how work affects those living in pain and how they can stay in, or get back into, work.

Chris Main, Professor of Clinical Psychology at Keele University, and Elaine Heaver of the Bath Centre for Pain Research take us through the evidence showing the health benefits from being in work and explain how GPs now give ‘fit notes’ as well as sick notes. Paul Watson gives some advice on how to stay in work and talk to your employer and Shilpa Patel talks about the barriers faced by unemployed people with chronic pain.

Issues covered in this programme include: Work, benefits, policy, welfare reform, patient concerns, phased return to work, workplace adaptations, stigma, misconceptions, accessibility, insomnia, discussing pain, barriers to the workplace and training schemes.

Contributors:

• Elaine Heaver, Researcher, Bath Centre for Pain Research
• Professor Chris Main, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Keele University
• Dr Shilpa Patel, Research Fellow, University of Warwick
• Professor Paul Watson, Senior Lecturer in Pain Management and Rehabilitation, University of Leicester.