Activation programmes for disabled persons

169. General data on public spending on Active Labour Market Programmes (ALMP) show that, seen against their low level of overall unemployment, Norway and Switzerland belong to those OECD countries with a strong emphasis on rehabilitation and employment measures, with spending amounting to 0.7-0.8% of GDP. For Poland the opposite holds: the unemployment rate is more than four times higher than in Norway and Switzerland, yet spending on ALMP is only about 0.15% of GDP.

170. In Norway, three-quarters of total ALPM spending is directed towards people with disabilities, while in Switzerland the same share is spent on the unemployed. This difference mirrors the gap between the two countries in the size of the inflow to disability benefits and the eligibility criteria for participation in vocational rehabilitation. For Poland, activation measures are rarely used as a means to integrate disabled people into the regular labour market. Instead, 90% of Poland’s spending on activation of disabled people is directed towards permanent sheltered work (Figure 3.1, Panel A). In Switzerland and especially in Norway, reintegration measures are predominantly focused on the regular labour market.

Figure 3.1. Spending on ALMP in Poland is directed towards the sheltered sector

In percentage, 2003-04

Panel B. Annual expenditures on activations measures per disabled participant in US$ PPP

Panel A. Annual expenditures on activation measures for disabled people as a share of GDP

0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7

Norway Poland Switzerland Regular employment measures

0 5 000 10 000 15 000 20 000 25 000 30 000

Norway Poland Switzerland Regular employment measures

Sheltered employment measures Sheltered employment measures

Source: OECD estimates based on the OECD Active Labour Market Programmes database (2005); for Norway, AETAT data on

sheltered employment phase 3; for Poland, PFRON data on sheltered work; for Switzerland administrative data on sheltered employment.

171. Annual spending on employment measures per person, corrected for differences in purchasing power, is also much higher in Norway compared to Poland and Switzerland (Figure 3.1, Panel B). Measures such as work experience in Norway (discussed below) are staff-intensive and relatively more costly compared to, for example, wage subsidies in Poland which amount to around 70% of the minimum wage. However, costs of a sheltered workplace are also much higher in Norway than in the other two countries. Only in Switzerland is spending per person in sheltered work lower than for activation in regular employment measures. Overall, the spending-per-capita differences across countries are extraordinarily large: Norway spends five times as much as Poland and 2.5 times as much as Switzerland.

172. Vocationally disabled people in Norway can utilise a wide range of services, ranging from counselling and job-placement assistance to ordinary labour market measures. Disabled people have access to all mainstream programmes offered by the PES, but also to a range of special programmes. Measures are mainly offered on a temporary basis and can be grouped as in Table 3.4. In 2004, two-thirds of all people classified as vocationally disabled and registered at the Norwegian PES, or close to 60 000 people,

participated in vocational rehabilitation. Another 30 000 were either waiting to be placed in a suitable programme or for clarification of their work ability.16 _{In terms of all participants, ‘Education in regular}

school and labour market training’ is by far the most frequently used programme, accounting for half of all participants. Next in size are ‘Work experience in regular workplaces’ and ‘Work experience in sheltered workplaces’ with 17% and 12%, respectively. There appears to be a clear age-targeting of these programmes: whereas prime-age people participate more often in training measures, older participants are to a larger extent involved in ‘Work experience in sheltered enterprises’ and ‘Sheltered workshops’.

Table 3.4. Almost half of all participants in vocational rehabilitation in Norway receive training

Distribution of programme participants by age group, 2004 (percentages)

<20 20-24 25-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-66 Total

Education in regular schools and labour market training 30.5 45.4 57.8 57.8 48.2 27.6 7.8 48.9

Work experience in regular workplaces 49.9 21.6 14.3 14.7 17.3 19.5 10.3 17.1

Work experience in sheltered enterprises 1.3 8.2 9.8 9.4 12.3 19.9 38.4 11.9

Sheltered workshops 9.0 7.1 5.3 5.6 9.7 19.4 33.2 9.1

Supported employment 5.2 10.9 5.9 4.5 4.4 4.7 2.1 5.2

Wage subsidies 1.7 2.3 2.2 2.7 3.0 3.7 3.2 2.8

Trial measures 0.1 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9 1.4 2.2 0.8

Temporary public employment sector 0.3 1.1 0.5 0.6 0.7 1.0 1.8 0.7

Other measures 1.9 3.2 3.7 4.1 3.6 2.9 1.2 3.6

Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Vocationally disabled that participate in a programme 64.4 68.4 69.8 68.7 64.6 57.2 67.3 66.0 Source: Administrative data from AETAT (Norwegian public employment service).

173. Temporary ‘Wage subsidies’ are used rarely and, indeed, much less often than for non-disabled unemployed (OECD, 2004b and Chapter 4). These wage subsidies are understood to subsidise work carried out during normal working hours, which may limit the scope of participation for vocationally- disabled people. Instead, there is a stronger focus on ‘Work experience schemes’. These measures have more elements of adapted job training where participants can try out their capabilities and their efforts are followed-up in accordance with the plan prepared for each person.

174. Until recently, the disability office in Switzerland did not assist disabled workers who lost their jobs but were fully employable in jobs adapted to their health problem. These people were referred to the PES. After the fourth revision of the disability insurance act in 2004, the responsibility for job placement of disabled people was transferred to the disability offices, which opens up new opportunities but also raises new challenges such as training of staff and co-ordination with the PES. According to information from the Disability Insurance in 2005, only 17% of the staff of the disability offices were specialists on vocational reintegration of which only one in four (i.e. 4% of the entire staff) were involved with the job-placement implementation introduced in 2004.17

175. With the planned fifth revision, Switzerland will introduce new integration measures. These measures will be socio-professional in nature, such as adaptation to work processes, boosting of job

16. The maximum length of a temporary programme is three years. However, after completing one programme, participants are often qualifying for another programme, so-called “programme chains”, which means that the total period on vocational rehabilitation may last even longer.

17. The co-existence of several institutions responsible for job placement (private placement agencies, PES, disability offices, social welfare offices, private insurance companies, NGOs) makes the system complex. It remains to be seen whether the recent change will improve the situation for disabled people.

motivation, stabilising of the personality and acquisition of social skills. Targeted occupational measures aimed at labour market integration will partly replace the old measures of career guidance, basic vocational training, professional reorientation and placements – often not the most effective instruments. These new measures will benefit people whose earning capacity has been reduced to at least 50% over a minimum period of six months. Thus, they are hoped to reach people earlier than is currently the case. In addition, these measures are also designed to reach more people with low skills and with mental health problems. 176. Based on the limited available information, it appears as if in Poland very few employment programmes are available for or targeted to disabled people. One reason for this is that ZUS is not responsible to help disabled people back to work.18 Further, the Ministry of the Economy and Labour only deals with disabled people if they are unemployed and the local PES appears not to spend much effort on re-integration or employment measures of disabled people. Instead, the main employment measure for disabled people goes through Sheltered Work Establishments (SWEs), which are discussed further below. Other assistance mainly consists of permanent wage subsidies and financial aid to enabling education or employment through the removal of transport barriers (Ministry of Economy and Labour, 2004).