ABSTRACT
This chapter explains why innovative reform of Dutch disability insurance on both dimensions (policy and administration) was possible after all those years of protracted stalemate. It summarizes the long history of inertia and the barriers that obstructed previous reform attempts. The chapter analyses the disability reform efforts and results, the factors that made these reforms possible, and the reform of Dutch disability insurance benefits and administration. Before the 1990s, various attempts were made to reform the Dutch disability insurance system. However, these reform attempts never led to successful change. Several inter-related factors explain this inertia. First, the prevailing policy paradigm of the 1960s, 1970s, and beginning of the 1980s stabilized policy-making actors' preferences for years. Second, decision-making institutions enabled these actors to withstand pressures to reform the Dutch disability insurance system.
