TY - JOUR

T1 - Disability, employment and welfare reform

T2 - A comparative analysis of Australia and Denmark

AU - Hwang, Gyu Jin

AU - Jensen, Natasja Koitzsch

AU - Wadiwel, Dinesh

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Authors. Australian Journal of Social Issues published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australian Social Policy Association.

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - From the poor-relief tradition to the social citizenship-based development of the welfare state, the question of available social supports for people with disability has been one of the central issues of welfare reform agendas. Under the increasing influence of neoliberal rationalities, many welfare states have engaged in the redefinition of capacity and incapacity to work in an attempt to manage the fiscal cost of a growing number of people on disability pension and work incapacity benefits. These reconfigurations of income transfers have significant implications for the social and economic participation of people with disability. This article seeks to build knowledge about the policy implications of these changes by comparing recent disability policies in two very different welfare states—Australia and Denmark—who have contrasting approaches to activation measures concerning people with disability. This article examines how these welfare states have reconfigured the meaning of disability, thereby either restricting further or relaxing the conditions of labour market activation. Through these two cases, we argue that there is a case for labour market participation insofar as rights to work through improved employment opportunities take precedence over punitive regimes that reduce access to income support.

AB - From the poor-relief tradition to the social citizenship-based development of the welfare state, the question of available social supports for people with disability has been one of the central issues of welfare reform agendas. Under the increasing influence of neoliberal rationalities, many welfare states have engaged in the redefinition of capacity and incapacity to work in an attempt to manage the fiscal cost of a growing number of people on disability pension and work incapacity benefits. These reconfigurations of income transfers have significant implications for the social and economic participation of people with disability. This article seeks to build knowledge about the policy implications of these changes by comparing recent disability policies in two very different welfare states—Australia and Denmark—who have contrasting approaches to activation measures concerning people with disability. This article examines how these welfare states have reconfigured the meaning of disability, thereby either restricting further or relaxing the conditions of labour market activation. Through these two cases, we argue that there is a case for labour market participation insofar as rights to work through improved employment opportunities take precedence over punitive regimes that reduce access to income support.

KW - activation

KW - austerity

KW - Denmark

KW - disability

KW - re-commodification

U2 - 10.1002/ajs4.327

DO - 10.1002/ajs4.327

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85187472584

JO - Australian Journal of Social Issues

JF - Australian Journal of Social Issues

SN - 0157-6321

ER -