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Purpose: Sickness insurance and workers’ compensation systems decide on peoples’ eligibility for benefits, and are commonly based on medical certificates and assessments of work ability. Systems differ in the extent to which they preserve clients’ dignity and right to fair assessments. In this article, we define a new concept for studying interactions between individuals and systems: social insurance literacy, which concerns how well people understand the different procedures and regulations in social insurance systems, and how well systems communicate with clients in order to help them understand the system.

Methods: The concept was defined through a scoping literature review of related concepts, a conceptual re-analysis in relation to the social insurance field, and a following workshop.

Results: Five related concepts were reviewed for definitions and operationalizations: health literacy, financial/economic literacy, legal capability/ability, social security literacy, and insurance literacy.

Conclusions: Social insurance literacy is defined as the extent to which individuals can obtain, understand and act on information in a social insurance system, related to the comprehensibility of the information provided by the system. This definition is rooted in theories from sociology, social medicine and public health. In the next step, a measure for the concept will be developed based on this review.

Question & problem

Social protection systems and other financial assistance, including cash transfers and integrated benefits packages, may be important ways to facilitate the inclusion of people with disabilities in services and society. There is limited information, however, with regards to their impact in low- and middle-income settings. To understand how these programs work, it is important to recognise that there are disability-targeted entitlements, but people with disabilities may also be eligible for mainstream programmes aimed at other targeted groups, such as people of a certain socio-economic status. This evidence note summarises what is known about challenges faced by both of these types of initiatives, as well as evidence-based recommendations to strengthen them.

This study explores participation of people with disabilities in social protection programmes, with Tanahun District of Nepal as the study setting. This research uses mixed methods to assess coverage (through direct survey), how coverage varies amongst people with disabilities (e.g. by gender, impairment type), as well as challenges and facilitators to enrolling in or using relevant social protection programmes. This research benefits from a population-based study design and from the use of the Washington Group question sets

The European Journal of Development Research (2019) 31:929–956

https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-019-0194-3

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of Family Group Conference for promoting return to work by clients receiving work disability benefits from the Social Security Institute in the Netherlands.

Methods: We conducted a mixed-method pre- post-intervention feasibility study, using questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and return to work plans drafted in Family Group Conferences. A convenient sample of Labour experts, Clients, and Facilitators was followed for a period of six months. Feasibility outcomes were demand, acceptability, implementation and limited efficacy of perceived mental health and level of participation.

Results: Fourteen labour experts and sixteen facilitators enrolled in the study. Of 28 eligible clients, nine (32%) participated in a Family Group Conference. About 78% of the Family Group Conferences were implemented as planned. Participant satisfaction about Family Group Conference was good (mean score 7). Perceived mental health and level of participation improved slightly during follow-up. Most actions in the return to work plans were work related. Most frequently chosen to take action was the participating client himself, supported by significant others in his or her social network. Six months after the Family Group Conference five participating clients returned to paid or voluntary work.

Conclusions: Family Group Conference seems a feasible intervention to promote return to work by clients on work disability benefit. Involvement of the social network may have added value to support the clients in this process. An effectiveness study to further develop and test Family Group Conferences is recommended.

This report identifies a wide range of barriers persons with disabilities experience in accessing social protection to be overcome. It calls for better data on disability, disability-specific and old age pension schemes and expanded coverage; adapting communications about social protection schemes; and improving disability assessment mechanisms. The project involved a review of the literature, an analysis of household survey datasets, and consultations with key stakeholders and persons with disabilities in seven low- and middle-income countries: Brazil, India, Kenya, Mauritius, Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia.

This study uses mixed methods to explore participation in disability‐targeted and non‐targeted social protection programmes in Viet Nam, particularly in the district of Cam Le. Following an overview of social protection in Viet Nam, and in addition to presenting quantitative measures of access, this article identifies challenges and facilitators to participation in social protection.

A mixed‐methods approach was used to evaluate the extent to which people with disabilities are accessing existing social protection programmes, including an evaluation of the effects of barriers and facilitators to access. First, a national policy analysis was conducted to provide an overview of available social protection entitlements, and how their design and implementation may affect access for people with disabilities. Second, qualitative and quantitative research was conducted in one district of Viet Nam to measure coverage and uptake of specific entitlements and to explore factors influencing access in greater depth.

International Social Security Review,Vol. 72, 1/2019
https://doi.org/10.1111/issr.12195

This Campbell systematic review examines the effects of individualised funding on a range of health and social care outcomes. It also presents evidence on the experiences of people with a disability, their paid and unpaid supports and implementation successes and challenges from the perspective of both funding and support organisations.

This study is a review of 73 studies of individualised funding for people with disabilities. These include four quantitative studies, 66 qualitative and three based on a mixed-methods design. The data refer to a 24-year period from 1992 to 2016, with data for 14,000 people. Studies were carried out in Europe, the US, Canada and Australia.

DOI 10.4073/csr.2019.3

This guidance has been developed as a tool to reach the goal that all EU-funded humanitarian partners be required to take the needs of persons with disabilities into account in their projects.

It concentrates on mainstreaming the needs of persons with disabilities across all types of humanitarian interventions, hence not dealing with targeted actions specifically. As such, this guidance is a complementary tool to existing Thematic Policies, in particular to Thematic Policy n°8 on Humanitarian Protection

The guidance consists of three main parts. Part II presents disability mainstreaming in programming in detail and provides a series of concrete examples and illustrations. It also provides tools to collect data and measure disability inclusion. Part III of the guidance is a short document that that can be easily used in the field for either programming or monitoring.

Switzerland’s social policies in the field of disability have been significantly reshaped over the last two decades by reducing the number of allowances awarded and by increasing the recourse to vocational rehabilitation measures. What stances do individuals who experience the implementation of these policies adopt? What kind of tests are they subjected to? How can we explain the posture they adopt – be it ‘compliant’, ‘pacified’ or ‘rebellious’ – when facing the (re)assignations of their identity and professional status? Drawing on interviews conducted with individuals who have recently been involved in programmes set up by Swiss disability insurance, we highlight their uncertainties and concerns relating to their place in society, as well as their reactions to disability insurance’s interventions.