Many foreigners move out of disability benefits

Nearly 900 thousand people in the Netherlands were receiving a disability benefit in September 2001. One year later more than 73 thousand people in this group were no longer receiving such a benefit. Of these 73 thousand, around 31 thousand had reached retirement age (65 years), 9 thousand had died and 25 thousand were back in work. Just over 8 thousand were receiving another benefit or had no source of income.

Percentage of disabled aged 15-64 years with a job, 2001

Work alongside benefit increases chances of moving out of benefit

One quarter of disability benefit claimants in 2001 were partially incapacitated. Seven out of ten of these (excluding the group who retired) had a job alongside their benefit, either as an employee or self-employed. For completely disabled people, this was two out of ten.

People no longer eligible for disability benefit more often had a job alongside their benefit in the year before they moved out of the benefit situation. Nearly nine out of ten partially incapacitated people who no longer received a benefit in 2002 had a job alongside their benefit in 2001. For completely incapacitated people this was nearly half.

Percentage of total disability claimants aged 15-44 years moving out of benefit situation, 2001-2002

Percentage of total disability claimants aged 45-64 years moving out of benefit situation, 2001-2002

More non-western foreigners move out of benefit situation

Around 82 percent of disability benefit claimants in 2001 were native Dutch people; 9 percent were non-western foreigners and 9 percent western foreigners.

Relatively more non-western foreigners than native Dutch people moved to a situation where they no longer claimed disability benefit: 5.2 percent and 3.7 percent respectively. Relatively more young than old people, too, stopped receiving disability benefit. After correction for age, the outflow among non-western foreign groups was higher.

Both the percentages of non-western foreign incapacitated who moved from a benefit situation into work and those who no longer claimed a benefit but did not have a job was higher than among native Dutch people. The Turkish and Moroccan groups were an exception. The outflow of older Turks and Moroccans was relatively smaller than that among older native Dutch people.

Marjolijn Das