Work Disability Policy

A wave of scientific research began in the 1990s to examine the design and implementation of work disability policies, which foster engagement in the labor force for individuals when they are injured, ill, or impaired. The promise was that everyone benefits with these policies. Workers gain or maintain their employment and health, employers add or retain valued employees, and the state has fewer social security system dependents. However, the reality has been more complex. This chapter discusses the field of work disability research and policy conditions and argues for the need to ask new questions about work disability policies, including why they are designed differently across jurisdictions and how well they function. It describes social security challenges and shifts in understandings about health and activation that contributed to the growth of the field of work disability research and policy. The chapter examines issues facing implementation of work disability policies, including aging populations and weakly coordinated work disability policies. It provides approaches to understanding policy effectiveness and the need to consider work disability policies in their specific contexts. Existing social contracts, policy systems, beliefs, and the priorities of implementing agents, along with complex multiple layers of local and national governance, can offer more or less fertile terrain for new or revised work disability policy approaches. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.