The story of Danish disability pension – from compensation to development

Abstract

This article illuminates the change in the Danish disability pension legislation from the reforms in 1984 to the reforms in 2003 and 2013. The study is based on analysis of public documents related to the development in form of the Law, law-related negotiations and hearings, commission reports and research. The study addresses two issues. Firstly, the article addresses the changes in eligibility criteria. The change of the basic concept from ‘the loss-of-capacity-to-earn criterion’ (erhvervsevne) to ‘the capacity-to-work criterion’ (arbejdsevne) is central to the development. The 1984 reform continued the principles from the 1950ies with emphasis on compensating the degree of disability to work. The 2003 reform highlighted the idea of workability instead of disability. The municipality should from now on focus on possibilities and capacities instead of problems and barriers, following the goal of minimizing the number of people who were entitled to a disability pension. The 2013 reform puts an even stronger emphasis on the potential workability of clients with low permanent workability. The outcome is that fewer people receive disability pension also due to the introduction of fl exi-job scheme and the interdisciplinary rehabilitation program. Secondly, the article addresses how policy ideas and policy decisions gradually has changed the basic understanding and conceptualization of social policy and employment policy. Formerly, disability pension was a basic element of traditional social policy with a focus on economic compensation of a low workability combined with the effort to prevent further problems in case of health related problems. Nowadays, disability pension is increasingly a part of a basically workfare oriented employment policy, where all adults in principle are objects for a work oriented intervention.