Use of Rehabilitation and Partial Work Disability Benefits Is Increasing – What About Work Participation?
Abstract
Background
In Finland, several legislative changes have been enacted lately, aiming at enhanced return to work after
prolonged sickness absence. We assessed the effects on return to work of legislative changes – enacted in 2012 – obligating
early notification of prolonged sickness absence (>30 days) as well as assessment of remaining work ability and possibilities
to continue working (before 90 days). Moreover, the time spent in gainful work and receiving ill health-based benefits, as
well as transitions between work and various benefits were looked at before and after the legislative changes.
Methods
Two representative working age population cohorts (70% of the total Finnish population) were followed via
registers for ten months.
Results
Sustained return to work decreased slightly, while there was no difference in overall work participation before
and after the legislative change. Less time was spent on full sickness absence and full work disability after vs before the
legislative change, whereas time in partial work disability and in rehabilitation increased over 1.5-fold.
Conclusions
The studied legislative changes did not appear to have enhanced return to work or work participation after
prolonged sickness absence during a follow-up of ten months
Authors
Eira Viikari-Juntura, Lauri Virta, Taina Leinonen, Kirsti Husgafvel-Pursiainen, Ilona Autti-Rämö, Svetlana Solovieva
Additional Information
- Peer-Reviewed: yes.
- Open Access: yes.
- Cite as: Viikari-Juntura, E., Virta, L., Leinonen, T., Husgafvel-Pursiainen, K., Autti-Rämö, I., & Solovieva, S. (2017). Kuntoutus- ja osittaisten työkyvyttömyysetuuksien käyttö lisääntyy – miten työssäolo? Duodecim, 133(18), 1655–1663. https://www.duodecimlehti.fi/duo13899
