Luxembourg Seminar on Disability - June 2007

First day: 28 June 2007
Opening statements by Minister Mars di Bartolomeo and Minister François Biltgen and Opening speech by Aart de Geus, Deputy-Secretary General of the OECD

Review session: The situation in the four countries and the OECD conclusions

Chairs: Minister Mars di Bartolomeo and Minister François Biltgen (alternate)

Introduction of the draft review report

Presentation of the key findings by Michael Förster and Christopher Prinz

Australia
OECD summary of key challenges in Australia: A major concern is the low and falling level of income of people with disabilities, which is more than one-third lower than for non-disabled people, in turn leading to a high poverty risk. This problem partly results from the equally low and falling rate of employment of disabled people, of only 40%, despite a tight labour market. Another problem in Australia is the very strong increase over the past 15 years in the number of people receiving disability benefits, an increase that has predominantly affected workers under age 50. Even if the increase has halted recently, the problem will persist because of the low rate of outflow from disability benefits.

Lead discussant from the United Kingdom

Luxembourg
OECD summary of key challenges in Luxembourg: Disability benefits are primarily used as an early retirement pathway, with more than 80% of all recipients being older than 50. In turn, the share of non-disabled people on disability benefit is the highest in the four countries. At the same time more disabled people are found to have neither a job nor a benefit. Also of concern is the high level of public spending on disability benefits, at 1.7% of GDP in 2005, despite a fall from 2.2% in the past decade. Another challenge in Luxembourg is the weak co-operation between various actors responsible for rehabilitation and employment support, which is one of the reasons for the recent increase in unemployment of disabled people.

Lead discussant from Spain

Spain
OECD summary of key challenges in Spain: The decentralisation of large parts of disability benefit and employment policies has raised significant co-ordination issues. In particular, problems relate to the lack of good co-operation between the decentralised employment service and the centralised social insurance institution. The second fundamental challenge in Spain is the very high level of unemployment of people with a disability (over 18%) and their low rate of employment (less than 35%). While employment rates have increased recently, and incomes risen in return, the sharp drop in overall unemployment has not reached disabled people. This is probably partly related to the very low average level of educational attainment of this group of the population.

Lead discussant from Australia

The United Kingdom
OECD summary of key challenges in the United Kingdom: The main challenge is the very large number of disability benefit recipients. At 8%, the share of the working-age population on such benefits is much higher than on average across the OECD, and almost twice the country’s rate of unemployment. The prevalence of mental illness has increased sharply to reach 40% of all disability benefit recipients in 2005. This is also worrying in view of the very low employment rate of people with mental health problems. Another important issue in the United Kingdom is the low level of income of disabled people. Given their comparatively high rate of employment, this suggests that disabled people tend to work in low-paid jobs.
Lead discussant from Luxembourg

Session A: The role of employers
Chair: Aart de Geus (OECD)
- What kind of sickness management and absence monitoring is needed ?
- How much of the sickness absence costs should be paid by employers ?
- How can employers be integrated into the (vocational) rehabilitation process ?
- How can the “work retention versus hiring incentives” dilemma be addressed ?

Contribution by Roland Schneider, TUAC
Contribution by Pierre Bley, UEL, Luxembourg
Contribution by Marco van Dal, The Netherlands

Second day: 29 June 2007

Session B: Improving the effectiveness of employment services
Chair: Mark Pearson (OECD)
- Is outcome-based funding of disability employment services the way to go ?
- By whom should specialist services be delivered: by the Public Employment Service or by specialist providers ? And what role for social security ?
- How can a one-stop-shop service delivery approach be implemented ?
- What kind of quality assurance schemes should be put in place ?
- Is mainstreaming compatible with delivering special programmes ?

Contribution by Berit Toft Fihl, Denmark
Contribution by Bjørn Halvorssen, Norway

Session C: The political economy of sickness and disability reform
Chair: Mark Pearson (OECD)
- How should policy makers deal with controversial issues, e.g. enforcement of regulations and sanctions for non-compliance, mutual obligations frameworks ?
- What difficulties are countries facing in regard to the implementation of reforms, especially policies that are delivered on a regional level ?
- What role in the policy process should the social partners play, and how should disability NGOs and lobby groups be involved ?

Contribution by Martin Wicki, Switzerland
Contribution by Christopher Prinz, OECD

Closing statements

Related documents:
List of participants