Apologies for cross-posting
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Too many workers leave the labour market through sickness and disability
benefits, says OECD
http://www.oecd.org/document/32/0,2340,en_2649_201185_37635040_1_1_1_1,00.htm
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07/11/2006 - Norway, Poland and Switzerland should do more to reduce the
number of people claiming sickness benefits and help more disabled people to
get jobs, according to a new OECD report.
Sickness, Disability and Work: Breaking the Barriers analyses the sickness
and disability policies in Norway, Poland and Switzerland and proposes steps
the governments should take to cut the number of people claiming these
benefits and help them back into the labour market.
Government spending on sickness and disability accounted for 2.4% of GDP
across OECD countries in 2004, nearly double the spending on unemployment
benefits, which accounted for 1.3% of GDP in the same year. Spending on
sickness and disability in Norway, Poland and Switzerland exceeds the OECD
average, representing between 3% and 5% of GDP, while unemployment benefit
spending is below the OECD average in all three countries.
A key challenge is helping sick and disabled people find work or keep their
job. Most people who start claiming disability benefits will not work again,
but many want to work and could work if given the right training and support.
Helping persons with health problems or disability to work will improve their
integration into society as well as their incomes. In the long term, such a
policy will raise the prospect of higher overall economic output of a
country, thereby helping to meet the challenge of ageing populations.
Each country faces different problems. In Norway, generous sickness benefits,
the low cost for employers of having workers on sick leave and the lack of
checks of general practitioners' medical assessments are creating very high
rates of sickness absence. This is worrying because the longer people are on
sickness benefit, the higher the likelihood of a transfer into disability
benefit. In Switzerland, private sickness benefit insurers dealing with sick
people do not take enough into account the long-term cost for public
insurance of putting people, especially those with mental health problems, on
disability benefit. And in Poland, little help is given to disabled people to
find work which contributes to their exceptionally low employment rate.
What should be done? Firstly, work incentives need to be improved everywhere
to encourage people on benefits who can work to find jobs. Secondly, to
reduce the number of people moving onto disability benefits, better sickness
absence monitoring is needed. Thirdly, the vocational rehabilitation system
should be improved. In Switzerland and Poland, this should include opening up
the criteria for eligibility so that more people can benefit and in Norway
more efforts should be devoted to employment-oriented measures to help people
get back to work more quickly.
Fourthly, all three countries should also open up support programmes to the
large and growing number of people whose disability benefit application has
been rejected and who usually have great difficulties returning to the labour
market. Finally, co-operation between all the involved parties should be
strengthened, including between the social insurance institution and the
public employment service and between medical and vocational rehabilitation
authorities.
All three countries have taken steps in the right direction in recent years,
the report notes. They have broadened their rehabilitation and employment
policies. They have also started to modify their benefit systems, with a view
to making access tighter, placing a stronger focus on early action and
temporary entitlements and strengthening re-employment incentives. These
reforms are likely to improve existing activation and integration policies,
but the report shows that all three countries need to do much more in order
to achieve their stated objectives.
See the country notes on Norway, Poland and Switzerland for details about the
OECD's policy recommendations.
http://www.oecd.org/document/1/0,2340,en_2649_201185_37633985_1_1_1_1,00.html
http://www.oecd.org/document/16/0,2340,en_2649_201185_37634640_1_1_1_1,00.htm
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http://www.oecd.org/document/1/0,2340,en_2649_201185_37634817_1_1_1_1,00.html
Journalists can obtain a copy of Sickness, Disability and Work: Breaking the
Barriers - Norway, Poland and Switzerland by contacting the OECD's Media
Division (tel. +331 4524 9700). For further information, please contact one
of the authors in OECD's Directorate of Employment, Labour and Social
Affairs: Christopher Prinz (tel. +331 4524 9483), Patrik Andersson (tel.+ 331
4524 8851) and Michael Förster (tel. +331 4524 9280).
The report can be purchased in paper or electronic form through the OECD's
Online Bookshop. Subscribers and readers at subscribing institutions can
access the online version via SourceOECD. See
http://www.oecd.org/document/32/0,2340,en_2649_201185_37635040_1_1_1_1,00.htm
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