[What is the meaning of the concept "incapacity for work"?]

Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 1998 Mar 28;142(13):681-4.
[Article in Dutch]

Abstract

In the Dutch Social Disability Insurance Act (WAO) the unit of measure is the loss of wages the client sustains due to his handicap, not the disease, illness or handicap itself. In principle disability is not established by medical facts only: the main question is what a client could earn by working fulltime in suitable work. For that reason it is usually the labour expert, not the doctor who ultimately assesses the measure of disability. In spite of health complaints, everyone can still do something and disability on pure medical grounds therefore is, or at least should be, rather exceptional. The WAO gives no compensation for injury, grief, or overtaxed private conditions. A client does not have to confine himself to the jobs mentioned in the judgement by the labour expert.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • English Abstract

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Disability Evaluation*
  • Disabled Persons / rehabilitation
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Insurance, Disability
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Netherlands
  • Occupational Therapy
  • Occupations
  • Social Security