ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the Dutch disability benefit system and some other programmes that are part of a national policy toward persons with disabilities. It deals with a short description of the sickness and disability benefit programmes. The chapter discusses trends in disability expenditures and beneficiaries in order to illustrate what is at stake. Under the Dutch ruling any illness or injury entitles an insured person to a disability benefit after a mandatory waiting period of 12 months. In contrast to countries with a similarly broad social welfare system the Dutch disability programme used to lack effective mandates regarding vocational rehabilitation and a rehabilitation infrastructure to support such mandates. The Social Insurance Institute contracts private reintegration service organisations to execute reintegration plans. The chapter concludes that Holland is moving from a wayward system to a more balanced one using elements that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development suggests in its new publication on disability policy.
