Thursday, November 20, 2008
[IWS] OECD: REFORM of DISABILITY SYSTEMS (Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands) [20 November 2008]
IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________
OECD
See the country notes for details about the OECD's policy recommendations.
Denmark
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/9/36/41695696.pdf
Finland
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/9/34/41695739.pdf
Ireland
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/9/32/41696306.pdf
Netherlands
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/9/31/41696331.pdf
OECD says governments must continue reforms of disability systems [20 November 2008]
http://www.oecd.org/document/43/0,3343,en_2649_34487_41689835_1_1_1_1,00.html
20/11/2008 - OECD governments should continue reforming their sickness and disability systems and help people with health problems to retain their jobs or find new ones, according to a new OECD report.
Sickness, Disability and Work: Breaking the Barriers (Vol.3) Denmark, Finland, Ireland and the Netherlands notes that across OECD countries governments are spending twice as much on illness and disability as on unemployment benefit: as much as 3% of GDP in Denmark and Finland and over 4% in the Netherlands, compared to an OECD average of 2% and 1.5% in Ireland.
Helping people with health problems stay in or return to work would increase overall employment rates and reduce public spending, the report notes, and it would raise the incomes of those people who can and often want to work.
In the current economic downturn, there is a risk that some countries may be tempted to use sickness and disability schemes to cushion job losses. This would be a big, costly long-term mistake given that the vast majority of people who are put on disability benefits never work again.
Denmark and the Netherlands have seen rapid increases in the number of young people claiming disability benefits, while Ireland is facing a rapid increase in the use of long-term sickness and disability schemes, especially for people over 50. Similarly, in Finland disability benefits are being mainly used as a substitute for early retirement, with 70% of all new recipients being older than 50.
In all four countries, new claimants increasingly suffer from mental-health conditions. Finland reports very high rates of unemployment for people with disability, while Ireland has very low and falling employment rates for this group. The latter is also true for the Netherlands, despite the recent success of far-reaching reform in reducing the flow into disability benefits. In Denmark, despite a series of benefit reforms, dependence on health-related benefits has increased.
What should countries do? Improving the financial incentives for public authorities, such as benefit offices, to be more pro-active in helping people off benefit and back to work would help. Making employers responsible for paying more towards a worker's sickness or disability benefit, for example, would also encourage firms to try to retain workers.
Denmark and the Netherlands have also streamlined the roles and responsibilities of their main public agencies to create a one-stop-shop service for people on sickness or disability benefit. This has made the benefit and employment support system simpler and more transparent and improved co-operation and co-ordination. Finland and Ireland should follow their lead.
Targeting supports more effectively is vital, such as making sure that caseworkers have the time to deal with every client on an individual basis. Getting the balance right between size and degree of targeting is also important. The highly focused wage subsidy scheme in Finland is effective but only in helping a few people, whereas Denmark's heavily and permanently subsidised flex-job scheme employs 5% of the labour force but is expensive and could be improved.
See the country notes on < http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/9/36/41695696.pdf> Denmark, < http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/9/34/41695739.pdf> Finland, < http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/9/32/41696306.pdf> Ireland and the < http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/9/31/41696331.pdf> Netherlands for details about the OECD's policy recommendations. This is the 3rd volume in the Sickness, Disability and Work: Breaking the Barriers series. Volume 1 released in 2006 covered Norway, Poland and Switzerland; Volume 2 released in 2007 covered Australia, Luxembourg, Spain and the United Kingdom.
______________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.
Stuart Basefsky
Director, IWS News Bureau
Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell/ILR School
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Telephone: (607) 255-2703
Fax: (607) 255-9641
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu
****************************************
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________
OECD
See the country notes for details about the OECD's policy recommendations.
Denmark
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/9/36/41695696.pdf
Finland
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/9/34/41695739.pdf
Ireland
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/9/32/41696306.pdf
Netherlands
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/9/31/41696331.pdf
OECD says governments must continue reforms of disability systems [20 November 2008]
http://www.oecd.org/document/43/0,3343,en_2649_34487_41689835_1_1_1_1,00.html
20/11/2008 - OECD governments should continue reforming their sickness and disability systems and help people with health problems to retain their jobs or find new ones, according to a new OECD report.
Sickness, Disability and Work: Breaking the Barriers (Vol.3) Denmark, Finland, Ireland and the Netherlands notes that across OECD countries governments are spending twice as much on illness and disability as on unemployment benefit: as much as 3% of GDP in Denmark and Finland and over 4% in the Netherlands, compared to an OECD average of 2% and 1.5% in Ireland.
Helping people with health problems stay in or return to work would increase overall employment rates and reduce public spending, the report notes, and it would raise the incomes of those people who can and often want to work.
In the current economic downturn, there is a risk that some countries may be tempted to use sickness and disability schemes to cushion job losses. This would be a big, costly long-term mistake given that the vast majority of people who are put on disability benefits never work again.
Denmark and the Netherlands have seen rapid increases in the number of young people claiming disability benefits, while Ireland is facing a rapid increase in the use of long-term sickness and disability schemes, especially for people over 50. Similarly, in Finland disability benefits are being mainly used as a substitute for early retirement, with 70% of all new recipients being older than 50.
In all four countries, new claimants increasingly suffer from mental-health conditions. Finland reports very high rates of unemployment for people with disability, while Ireland has very low and falling employment rates for this group. The latter is also true for the Netherlands, despite the recent success of far-reaching reform in reducing the flow into disability benefits. In Denmark, despite a series of benefit reforms, dependence on health-related benefits has increased.
What should countries do? Improving the financial incentives for public authorities, such as benefit offices, to be more pro-active in helping people off benefit and back to work would help. Making employers responsible for paying more towards a worker's sickness or disability benefit, for example, would also encourage firms to try to retain workers.
Denmark and the Netherlands have also streamlined the roles and responsibilities of their main public agencies to create a one-stop-shop service for people on sickness or disability benefit. This has made the benefit and employment support system simpler and more transparent and improved co-operation and co-ordination. Finland and Ireland should follow their lead.
Targeting supports more effectively is vital, such as making sure that caseworkers have the time to deal with every client on an individual basis. Getting the balance right between size and degree of targeting is also important. The highly focused wage subsidy scheme in Finland is effective but only in helping a few people, whereas Denmark's heavily and permanently subsidised flex-job scheme employs 5% of the labour force but is expensive and could be improved.
See the country notes on < http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/9/36/41695696.pdf> Denmark, < http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/9/34/41695739.pdf> Finland, < http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/9/32/41696306.pdf> Ireland and the < http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/9/31/41696331.pdf> Netherlands for details about the OECD's policy recommendations. This is the 3rd volume in the Sickness, Disability and Work: Breaking the Barriers series. Volume 1 released in 2006 covered Norway, Poland and Switzerland; Volume 2 released in 2007 covered Australia, Luxembourg, Spain and the United Kingdom.
______________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.
Stuart Basefsky
Director, IWS News Bureau
Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell/ILR School
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Telephone: (607) 255-2703
Fax: (607) 255-9641
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu
****************************************
# posted by SBasefsky : 5:40 AM
