ABSTRACT
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries spend at least twice as much on disability-related programmes as they spend on unemployment. Disability benefits on average account for more than 10% of total social spending. In spite of such high spending, disability rates remain stubbornly high. The low employment rate of people with disabilities reflects a failure of government social policies. The chapter proposes reforms to move disability policy closer to the philosophy of successful unemployment programmes, based on some key features: recognise the status of disability independent of the work and income situation, emphasises putting people to work, restructure benefit systems, and introduce a culture of mutual obligations. Disability rates have been increasing in almost all OECD countries and policy efforts to help persons with disabilities return to work have hardly been successful in any of the countries. Disability benefit systems function as early retirement programmes, providing a route for quasi-permanent exit from the labour market.
