The Granting of Anticipatory Pension and Flex-Jobs
A Qualitative Analysis of Differences in Practice in Danish Municipalities

• the assessment of when ability to work is permanently reduced to such a degree that the person will not be able to provide for himself or herself;
• the municipality’s endeavours to test the ability to work of persons being assessed and have them enter work on terms that are as ordinary as possible.

We also sought to identify contextual differences in the granting of anticipatory pension and flex-jobs. The context is determined for each municipality by its particular policy goals and priorities relating to this area of its responsibilities, the limits of available resources, specific initiatives related to the local government reform that took place in January 2007 along with the establishment of the new job centres, and any particular organisational features affecting it with regard to the processing and finalisation of flex-job and anticipatory pension cases.

The study indicates that the differences between the municipalities in the volume of flex-jobs and anticipatory pension granted can be linked in part to their handling of long-term cash benefit and sickness benefit cases. In several districts, a backlog of cases had arisen following the local government reorganisation of 1 January 2007, which coincided with the establishment of the new job centres. Many municipalities also experienced a lot of pressure on staff, and as a result of these circumstances a large number of unresolved cases had accumulated in many districts since 2006. Those districts that awarded relatively few anticipatory pension in 2006/7 seem to have been in a period in which they gave lower priority to resolution of cases of long-term recipients of cash benefit or sickness benefit, and one consequence of this was the prolongation of many sickness benefit cases beyond 52 weeks.

On the other hand, the study found there were municipalities which had directed extra resources in the period under consideration to clearing up the case backlog, including the cases of long-term recipients of sickness benefit. This resulted in a temporary rise in the number of people being granted anticipatory pension and flex-jobs, and this was reflected in the benchmarking analysis, where these municipalities were classed as granting relatively many anticipatory pensions and flex-jobs in 2006/7. In their case, this can accordingly be ascribed largely to their strategy for dealing with a case backlog.

The presence of a group of stable and experienced council employees can contribute to a higher degree of continuity in case processing and to the resolution of complicated cases, and thereby to a quicker assessment and more stable rate of granting flex-jobs and anticipatory pension, so that case backlogs are avoided. In recent years it has been difficult for many mu-nicipalities – especially in the peripheral areas – to retain and recruit experienced employees with a specialised social work background, and this has inevitably influenced case processing, especially with regard to the complicated and lengthy cases. High staff turnover rates and fluctuating staffing level allocations can have an adverse effect, leading to case backlogs in lengthy cash benefit and sickness benefit cases, and to fluctuating rates of granting anticipatory pension.

In all districts, the medical assessment of ability to work, together with work trials, constitutes an important part of the basis for the decision on award of anticipatory pension. The municipalities’ medical officers have decisive influence on the outcome of the consideration of the medical report concerning ability to work. Several statements were made in the interviews that gave the impression that the medical assessment of when ability to work was permanently reduced to a level giving entitle¬ment to anticipatory pension had been the decisive factor in granting anticipatory pension. We have no basis to conclude that different medical assessment of ability to work explains the different volumes of anticipatory pension granted in the municipalities we studied, but there is a strong indication that it plays a substantial role in relation to the variation between municipalities in the granting of anticipatory pension.

The benchmarking analysis indicated that difference in assessment of ability to work was particularly likely in cases of mental problems (Kolodziejczyk et al. 2009). In the interview study, there was for example one municipality that attached particular importance to being proactive towards persons with psychiatric conditions, as its experience in the area de-monstrated that a gradual and gentle adaptation to the labour market had a decisive influence on the ability to work. This approach may conflict with the person’s own wishes and beliefs as to his or her own ability to work, and for precisely that reason this district urged its social workers to be particularly attentive to a gradual and ongoing adjustment to the labour market for the group of clients with mental problems.

In municipalities that granted relatively few anticipatory pensions, there seems to have been a tendency that the grant of flex-jobs had been centralised by placing the authority with a department manager or with a team or board. This may have tightened up the requirements for the grant of flex-jobs. However, there are also examples of similar centralisation in districts that granted relatively many anticipatory pensions.

The study did not yield indications of the existence in those municipalities that granted relatively few anticipatory pensions of a particular preventive policy to counteract a tendency for the ability to work of recipients of cash benefit or sickness benefit to be reduced to such a degree that they would become entitled to anticipatory pension. However, there were districts that reported special programmes aimed at certain medical conditions (e.g., mental conditions) or complexes of problems; but the method used in this study does not provide a basis to conclude whether such programmes have influenced the rate of granting of anticipatory pension or flex-jobs. These are complicated processes, in which to identify possible effects would require a completely different study design.

Nor have we identified differences between municipalities with regard to policy goals and priorities in their efforts in relation to employment and the disabled. It is a general goal in all districts to reduce the number of long-term recipients of cash benefit and sickness benefit. However, it appears that generally there are no policy goals regarding the rate of granting anticipatory pension or flex-jobs. The study further found that generally there were no budget limits in relation to the granting of flex-jobs or anticipatory pension.

1. A flex-job is a subsidised job awarded, if a person’s capacity for work is reduced to such an extent that it makes self-support impossible, even in a flexible working arrangement