Pathways to disability pension

From an economic as well as a societal point of view it is relevant to focus on the number of disability pensions being granted. I this project, however, we focus especially on the process leading up to the granting of a disability pension. The project involves four different municipalities geographically located in the Central Denmark Region and the research is based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods.

The quantitative analysis finds five distinct pathways towards disability pension going across the four participating municipalities and across the citizens in each of the municipalities having been granted a pension. Furthermore, the research discovers a difference in the timing of the activity measures initiated in the case work by social workers in the municipalities. Finally, the qualitative analysis points to a number of central challenges regarding the case work at the organisational, structural as well as individual level. Likewise, the challenges found regarding the case work with citizens on the way to disability pension are common across the four participating municipalities.