Disability in the Netherlands: Another Dutch disease?

The Netherlands is well known for its high employment growth and corresponding low unemployment rate. At various occasions the so-called Dutch miracle has been applauded, together with the underlying ‘Polder model’. A feature that initially was less recognised in the international debate, but has been a long-debated topic in the Netherlands, is the vast amount of persons in disability schemes. From the outset of the introduction of the first scheme (WAO) in 1969, disability in the Netherlands has exceeded unemployment and has been growing consistently to a level of over 900 thousand persons. This trend has occurred despite various countermeasures of the Dutch government. Even the major reforms in 1994 only caused a brief respite: after a decrease, the amount of disabled workers in the Dutch disability schemes started to grow again and has nearly reached one million. Hence when regarded in a European context, the incidence of disabled workers in the Netherlands is very high, although unemployment is very low. The high amount of disabled workers, together with its persistence, poses a serious problem, in economic as well as social terms. The inability of the Dutch society to deal with it effectively makes us wonder whether we are observing another Dutch disease. From that perspective we analyse the development over time of disability in the Netherlands and the efforts to reduce its incidence.