Disability pension despite vocational rehabilitation? A study from six social insurance offices of a county.

Many long-term sick-listed individuals move from vocational rehabilitation to pension, rather than reaching the goal of return to work. There is thus reason to consider whether rehabilitation resources are being used optimally. Individuals receiving disability pensions are consuming financial and personnel resources at the insurance offices and also consume a large amount of health care. The general objective of the study was to evaluate the proportion of individuals granted vocational rehabilitation but then obtaining temporary or permanent disability pensions. All persons receiving any kind of rehabilitation and attending one of six local national insurance offices in a county in Sweden in 1998 and 1999 were studied. A 2-year follow-up was carried out to assess changes in status among those who had received temporary disability pensions. Of all individuals receiving rehabilitation, 46.2% ended up with a disability pension allowance. In addition, a large portion of the temporary disability pensions was transformed to permanent disability pensions within 2 years. For clients with a temporary disability pension, the rate of resuming work was close to nil. Among rehabilitation measures, investigation showed the lowest figures of work resumption while job training showed the best outcome in this respect. The study concluded that a large portion of the financial and personnel resources allocated by the national insurance offices to rehabilitation resulted in disability pensions.