ABSTRACT
At first glance - and indeed even after various in-depth investigations from dif ferent perspectives - modem disability policy presents itself as quite ambiguous. First, underlying trends with respect to foreseeable problem loads are extremely contradictory and highly puzzling: Is overall disability likely to increase further or to decrease? And how is it that disability in older age (65+ years) and very old age is declining significantly, whereas it is increasing in working age (20-64 years) (and maybe even among children), despite the uncontested fact that the risk of invalidity rises with age?
