It Will Take Time And Resources: Changing Disability Benefits On The Way To The Social Model In CEE Countries

Abstract

All Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability. This will force changes in taxes and benefits related to disability. The final result of that process is unknown. To learn about possible changes, we compare current instruments in CEE countries with those in Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. We found designs of tax and benefit systems in CEE and Scandinavian countries to be based on the same key rules. However, the systems fundamentally differ in the particular solutions and methods. The benefits systems in CEE countries are more complicated and more oriented toward means-tested benefits and instruments specifically dedicated only to people with disability. We argue that changes forced by the implementation of the Convention rules will simplify the benefits system that will include more general instruments with disability added as additional eligibility conditions or income parameters. The speed of the transformation will depend on the economic growth rate, which is seen from the strongly positive relationship between the share of disability expenditure in GDP and the level of economic development in EU countries.

Keywords: Disability, Tax and Benefit Systems, Cash Benefits, Disability Models

JEL Classification: D61, H51, O52