Disabled Children or Disabled Society? The Growing Number of Children Receiving Social Security Benefits on the Grounds of Disability in the Netherlands
| DOI | 10.1177/138826270700900403 |
| Author | Marcel Einerhand |
| Date | 01 December 2007 |
| Published date | 01 December 2007 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
European Jour nal of Social Secu rity, Volume 9 (2007), No. 4 345
DISABLED CHILDREN OR DISABLED
SOCIETY? THE GROWING NUMBER
OF CHILDREN RECEIVING SOCIAL
SECURITY BENEFITS ON THE GROUNDS
OF DISABILITY IN THE NETHERLANDS
M E*
Abstract
e number of children and youngsters receiving social secu rity benets as a result
of disabilit y is increas ing in the Netherlands. e number receiving Child Benets
for Disabl ed Children aged 3 to 17 years has increased sharply. Upon reaching the
age of 18 youngsters may a pply for disability benets. e inow into this disability
scheme now is three time s as high as it was ten years ago. In 2006 roughly 1 in 20
youngsters aged 18 entered the scheme. i s trend can be observed not only in social
security arrangements, but also in other polic y eld s, such as education, health
care and youth care. is seem s to be cause d in particular by growing incidence of
psychological and behavioural problems. Reduced non take-up is a f urther reason
for this trend. But more importantly: it seems as if cer tain psychological disorders
and problematic forms of behaviour, which were not recognised as a disability before,
are now labelled as probl ematic. Society is becoming more demanding , and families
and schools’ ability to cope cannot match these g rowing demands.
Keywords: disability ; social insu rance; youth ca re; health ca re; children w ith
disabilities; menta l disorders, medical assessment; non take -up
* Research Coordinator at the Directorate of Social Security, Ministr y of So cial Aa irs and
Employment, P.O Box 9 0801, 2509 LV e Ha gue, t he Netherla nds; tel: +31 70 3335944; e-mai l:
meinerhand@m inszw.nl. e author wi shes to ac knowledge his gratitude to his colleagues at the
ministr y, at TNO, at U WV and two anonymous refere es for their helpful comment s on an ea rlier
version of t his paper. e content of t his article is exclusively the responsi bility of the author a nd
does not necessa rily represent the vie ws of the ministr y.
Marcel Einerha nd
346 Intersentia
1. INTRODUCTION
Because the growing number of disabled children is an ‘emergi ng’ issue, most of the
Dutch research on the possible causes of this growth is focused on sp ecic issues
and is l imited to a single discipline: for ex ample, educationa l research, sociology,
medicine or psychiatr y. e suggested causes are ver y diverse: increasing numbers of
children w ith psychiatric diseases (Sytema 20 06), better medica l knowledge leading
to a longer life for chi ldren with disabilities (Heymans 2006), the emergence of ‘new’
diseases such as ADHD and autism (LCT I 2006; de Jong 2006), increas ed demands
of schooling (OCW 2006), less fear of being sti gmatised (de Jong 2006), a more
complex society (Zeijl et al. 2005), dim inishing tolerance for people with disabilit ies
in the world of work (Besseli ng et al. 2 007), changing fa mily patterns (OCW 2006),
decreased non take-up of benets (de Jong 2006; Bes seling et al. 2007), a nd t he
inability of assessment procedures to measure t he severity of psychological disease s
in relation to work (or care) (de Jong 2006; OCW 2006). Whatever t he reason may be
for the growing number of chi ldren with disabilities, the g rowth in itself is alarm ing.
If modern societ y – which, in terms of physical health, is probably healthier than
all previous societies – is dening more people t han ever as disabled, this must be
a signicant development. In many countries we have seen large increases in the
numbers of adults in receipt of invalidity b enets, mainly because of psychological
problems. Is our society – child ren and adults – becoming more disabled?
Based on the available research, and additional empirical data, this paper considers
the possible reasons for the growth from a social security perspective. is implies that
societal developments (in social s ecurity terms, the possibil ity that there is a growing
target group for social security schemes), and changes in social security arrangements
(changes in non t ake-up, assessment and t he schemes themselves) wil l be discussed .
e three basic questions that nee d to be answered are:
– Is there a growing number of ch ildren and youngsters w ith disabilities or are we
simply labelling more child ren as disabled?
– Are developments within the so cial security system the cau se of this growth?
– How does societal change i nteract with social secu rity? Not all changes in societ y
will be mi rrored in changes in the inow into social se curity schemes.
is a rticle describes developments in one specic country: the Netherlands. I f the
Netherlands has an extreme position compared to other countries, the results will
indicate that t his is a t ypically Dutch problem, which perhaps results from Dutch
social security arra ngements. However, if the Netherlands does not diverge from
other countries, t hat would suggest t hat developments in the Netherlands are of a
more general nature. Recent research has compared problems reported by the parents
of child ren aged 6 to 16 in 31 cou ntries (Rescoria et al. 20 06, quoted by Meijer and
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