OECD Home › Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs › Social policies and data › Sickness, Disability and Work: Breaking the Barriers - Canada: Opportunities for Collaboration
Press release I Figures and Statistics I Previous and forthcoming reports
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Published: 2010 85 pages Free of charge (.pdf) |
How is it possible for average health status of the population to improve while many workers continue to leave the labour market permanently due to health problems or disability, forced to rely on welfare to survive? At the same time, many working-age adults with reduced work capacity are denied the opportunity to work. This social and economic tragedy is common to virtually all OECD countries, including Canada. It is a paradox that warrants explaining as well as innovative action. Canada shares many of the problems found in other OECD countries, including low rates of employment, high rates of unemployment and a high poverty risk for people with disability. However, despite an increasing trend, still fewer people than in most other OECD countries are receiving a long-term sickness or disability benefit. This can help in the years to come in the ongoing efforts of the federal and provincial governments to put in place a far more employment-oriented disability policy system. This report concludes that further change is needed especially in regard to better coordination of federal and provincial programmes, better accessibility of services and supports building on a one-stop-shop approach and a mutual-responsibility framework, and systematic early identification and intervention including a stronger role of employers to prevent labour market detachment. |
Further reform of sickness and disability policies needed, says OECD
Underlying figures and statistics (.xls)
| Figure 1.1 | People with disability are far less likely to be employed all over the OECD |
| Figure 1.2.Figure 1.2 |
People with disability are twice as likely to be unemployed, even in good times |
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Stable public disability benefit recipiency rates in Canada |
| Figure 1.4 | Some of the drop in unemployment was substituted by an increase in disability benefit rolls |
| Figure 1.5 |
More and more inflows into disability benefit because of mental health conditions |
| Figure 1.6 | A shift towards assistance-type payments in Canada but not in the US |
| Figure 1.7 |
People with disability are at greater risk of living in or near poverty |
| Figure 1.8 |
Incomes of non-employed people with disability are very low in English-speaking countries |
| Figure 1.9 |
Disability benefit levels in Canada are comparatively low for all schemes |
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Many non-employed Canadians with disability are excluded from benefits |
| Figure 1.11 | Employment and poverty levels are broadly similar across the three provinces |
| Figure 1.12 | Large cross-provincial differences in disability beneficiary rate trends over the past decade |
| Figure 1.13 | The array of federal and provincial benefits for Canadians with disability |
| Figure 2.1 | Canada spends little on ALMP, in line with all other English-speaking countries |
| Figure 2.2 | Overall spending on incapacity benefits in Canada is just below the OECD average |
| Figure 2.3 | Benefit stacking is potentially important but 3 in 4 beneficiaries receive only one benefit |
| Table 1.1 | The disability criterion of CPP-D is stricter than the criteria used in other OECD countries |
| Table 1.2 | The array of Employment Benefits and Support Measures |
| Table 1.3 | Only a minority of users of Employment Benefits and Support Measures have a disability |
| Table 1.4 | Provincial social assistance programmes for persons with disability |
| Table 2.1 | Canadians with disability can claim a variety of federal, provincial and private benefits |
| All Figures | All 21 above figures and tables as (.zip) |
Previous and forthcoming reports
This publication is a single-country report following the series of three comparative report on sickness and disability policies in selected OECD countries.
Related Documents
The OECD "Sickness, Disability and Work" project
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