Active market labour policies towards people with disabilities

Abstract

This article examines the active employment policy for persons with disabilities of working age, ensuring the transition from social security to employment in welfare states. In the first part of the study, based on international research and EU statistics, the reasons for such a transition, the goals, and the principles of active employment policy in welfare states with social democratic, conservative-corporatist, and neoliberal models are revealed. Criteria and methods for assessing employability are presented to distinguish between persons with disabilities and the unemployed, followed by their allocation to programmes with temporary or permanent forms of support. The pathways for entering the labour market are shown, oriented towards insiders (individuals with preserved or temporarily impaired employability) and outsiders (persons with disabilities with low employment prospects). The socio-demographic characteristics of persons with disabilities affecting their productivity and employability, and determining their needs for selective support measures, are reflected. The principles of “offensive” and “defensive” active employment policies in relation to such individuals, increasing the likelihood of employment and retention in the labour market, are studied and revealed. This includes the obligations of the state, employers and persons with disabilities, as well as incentive and punitive measures. The volume of public funds allocated to employment policy, the main directions in the expenditure classification system: services, active and passive measures are presented. The structure of expenditures and the purpose of each type of active employment measures for persons with disabilities are revealed, including job creation, start-ups, sheltered and supported employment, rehabilitation, employment incentives, and training. The priorities of active measures for persons with disabilities and employers, which contribute to their employment and retention in the labour market in welfare states with different models, are identified. The trends in the development of active employment policies over the past decade, strategies to increase its effectiveness, priorities for passive and active measures during periods of economic downturn are analysed. The results of the impact of active policies on the employment of persons with moderate and severe disabilities, as well as the consequences of changes in the accessibility of social security for disability and unemployment during the transition from social security to employment, are shown.

Keywords

• new welfare
• welfare-to-work
• labour-market policy
• active labour market policies
• social policy
• disability
• disability employment gap