ABSTRACT
Passive benefits are a bad idea not only for disability policies but for unemployment insurance and public assistance. Heavy means-testing in all these programmes creates political resistance to funding them at an adequate level. The leading nations in publicly subsidized child care generally provide child care services categorically as a social right with graded co-payments to constrain costs and make the spending politically acceptable. A growing social problem that poses an issue for the disabled is the interaction of two long-term trends common to all rich democracies: an increase in healthy older populations and a steady decrease in age of exit from the labour force. Four countries illustrate the themes of active work orientation, balancing rights and obligations, the interdependence of social, economic, and labourmarket policies, and "unbundling" - The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, and the USA. What politicians and agency administrators need is a decision rule that sounds fair and equitable, is publically acceptable, and does not break the bank.
