ABSTRACT
The idea behind social security programs is to provide benefits in case of income loss, or in the event employment is unattainable because of inability. The issues are highly policy relevant in many industrialized countries with a developed social security system, and play an important role in the proposals the new Dutch government has implemented recently. They will be discussed as conceptual issues, wherever possible referring to already existing literature, not by presenting the results of empirical research. The oldest form of social security in the field of sickness and disability with fairly substantial benefits or pensions is social insurance against the invalidation consequences of work accidents. When social insurance of loss of earnings because of sick leave was introduced, usually at a later stage, no such graduation in benefit entitlement seemed possible. The general concept of disease did not seem to lend itself to such operationalization.
