ABSTRACT
Disability support is awarded on the basis of demonstrated inability to work. Disabled people want to be enabled to participate in society, which includes in particular access to work. Disabled people who try to find a place in modern labour markets operate at a double disadvantage. They face the same challenges of structural change and job insecurity as other labour market participants. The persistence of unemployment at times when overall employment rates have grown has led to a revision of policy in most countries - a revision which the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) encouraged in its "job strategy" published in 1996. When the insurance principle was proposed by the OECD, a number of countries reacted by saying that it violated the basic principle on which social insurance is based: in return for paying a premium, those covered by social insurance are entitled to unconditional recompense if the condition against which they are socially insured occurs.
