Employment Instead of Benefit Receipt? Process and Outcomes of Reassessment of Dutch Disability Benefit Recipients

Abstract

In order to restrict the stock of disability benefit recipients in the Netherlands, a substantial re-assessment programme has been carried out on 340,000 persons receiving long term disability benefit. This article presents the background to this measure and describes its implementation and the assessment procedures applied. The analysis discusses the outcomes, regarding the newly-assessed degree of disability as well as client behaviour, such as the further dependency on benefits (e.g. ‘transfer’ to other benefit schemes) or return to the labour market of re-assessed (ex-)beneficiaries. The re-examinations substantially reduced the stock of disability benefit recipients but re-employment targets were not fully reached.

Keywords

benefit dependency disability disability assessment employment rehabilitation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Beljaars

and Prins

(2000) Disability programme reforms and labour market participation in the Netherlands (1990 – 2000); principles, measures and outcomes in a decade of combating high disability rates, paper for the Year 2000 International Research Conference on Social Security; 25–27 September; Helsinki.

Bockting

(2007) Changes in legislation on disability in the Netherlands. Paper for the ISSA European Regional Meeting; 15–16 May; Oslo.

Kenniscentrum

UWV

Directie

SBK

(2007) UWV Kwartaal Verkenningen 2006–2007.

Lisv (1999) Onderzoek naar de effecten van de eenmalige herbeoordelingsoperatie AAW/WAO 1994–1997. (‘Investigation into the impact of the unique reassessment operation disability benefit scheme 1994–1997.’) Amsterdam, Lisv.

Ministerie van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid (2009) Toezeggingen in het Algemeen Overleg Arbeidsongeschiktheid van 1 juli 2009. Letter from the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment to the Dutch House of Representatives, 7 September, Den Haag.

SIG/UWV. Project SMBA (2010) Innovatieve voorstellen voor sociaal-medische beoordeling van Arbeidsvermogen, (Innovative proposal for socio-medical evaluation of work capacity).

Slebus

F.G.

Sluiter

J.K.

Kuijer

P.P.F.M.

Willems

J.H.B.M.

and Frings-Dresen

M.H.W.

(2007) Work-ability evaluation: A piece of cake or a hard nut to crack? Disability and Rehabilitation 29 (16), 1295–1300.

Uitvoeringsinstituut Werknemersverzekeringen (2008) Jaarverslag 2007 (Annual Report 2007).

Uitvoeringsinstituut Werknemersverzekeringen (2008) Jaarverslag 2008 (Annual Report 2008).

10.

Uitvoeringsinstituut Werknemersverzekeringen (2008) Kroniek van de sociale verzekeringen 2008 (Chronicle of the social insurances 2008).

11.

Uitvoeringsinstituut Werknemersverzekeringen (2009) Rapportage afronding eenmalige herbeoordelingsoperatie. (Report on the completion of the one-off reassessment operation), Amsterdam, UWV.

12.

Van der Burg

C.L.

and Maurits

E.E.M.

(2009) Werkhervatting na herbeoordeling Duurzaamheid van de werkhervatting 3½ respectievelijk 2½ jaar na de uitslag. (Return to work after reassessment. Sustainability of return to work and 2½ years after the decision), Leiden, AStri.

13.

Van der Burg

C.L.

and Van Deursen

C.G.L.

(2008) Eindrapportage ‘Herbeoordeeld … en dan?’ Stand van zaken 18 maanden na de uitslag 2005 en 2006. (Final Report: Reassessed … and then? Client situations 18 months after reassessment, 2005 and 2006), Leiden, AStri.