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Disability policies and public views on work disability...

Despite the different benefit structures, the OECD countries have all become
increasingly convinced that it is important to identify and utilize residual work
capacity of people with health limitations. In principle, people with a partially-reduced
work capacity should not leave the labor force and should be supported to find or
remain in work. This would help ensure social integration, raise these individuals’
living standards and maintain effective labor supply in the face of an aging population.
However, in reality, the participation rates of disabled people are often low and not
increasing even when the employment rates are increasing for the general working-age
population in most countries. On the one hand, economic and labor market changes,
such as job requirements changes, perhaps play a role in hindering health-limited
individuals from remaining in or returning to work. On the other hand, inadequate
policies are one important reason for the low employment rates of these partially
disabled individuals. The OECD countries’ disability systems have predominately
focused on people’s work disabilities, rather than work capacity, which has made
the systems passive in fostering work. Assessment procedures and benefit systems
often push disabled people with significant work capacity into long-term benefit
dependency. Countries are increasingly aware of this problem. Many have started to
change the approach for those with partial work capacity with a goal of promoting
their employment and steering them away from benefit dependency and labor market
exclusion.

Appendix Table A1. Correlation between generosity of each disability policy dimension and vignettes classifying
Percentage of respondents Percentage of respondents Percentage of respondents
classifying the vignettes as Not at classifying the vignettes as Mildly classifying the vignettes as Severely
All Limited or Moderately Limited or Extremely Limited
Policy 1 -0.145 -0.145 0.164
Policy 2 -0.439 -0.094 0.192
Policy 3 0.060 0.091 -0.096
Policy 4 -0.139 -0.139 0.157
Policy 5 0.054 -0.122 0.095
Policy 6 0.381 -0.067 -0.035
Policy 7 -0.199 0.086 -0.027
Policy 8 -0.272 -0.021 0.086
Policy 9 -0.503 -0.091 0.205
Policy 10 -0.445 -0.156 0.249

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62 International Journal of Population Studies 2017, Volume 3, Issue 1