The issue of continuing spells of S A receipt has been little addressed by researchers fitting DREP models to SA histories. One reason for this is that, as discussed in Annex 4.B, data on SA benefit receipt are often measured in ‘benefit years’, which means that a measurement of spell durations is not possible. Cappellari and Jenkins (2008a: 58) account for the issue, pointing out that on average around two-thirds of the individuals observed to receive SA at an annual BHPS interview were also in receipt at the previous annual interview without any intervening months of non-receipt. They re-estimate their basic DREP model excluding individuals with continuing spells and report that the estimate of the coefficient on A. falls from above 1 to around 0.5 and the corresponding APE is less than one-third of the APE estimated when individuals with continuing spells are included.