Abstract

Vocational rehabilitation (VR) is an important socio-political instrument for ensuring occupational and social participation. In view of the structural change in work, the pull of the labor market and new health burdens, VR is coming under pressure. On the one hand, its importance is increasing, as health burdens at work are on the rise and more employees with health impairments are to be expected due to demographic change; on the other hand, access to VR is decreasing. Among other things, this raises questions about the significance of VR for people who are entitled to social policy benefits due to long-term health impairments. The interdisciplinary project poses the central question as to the conditions under which an entitlement to VR does not lead to the acceptance of a corresponding qualification and examines which factors cause the observed decline in VR. There appear to be potentially underserved groups of people for whom there are currently no adequate social or labor market policy instruments to mitigate a health risk in gainful employment or to enable professional reorientation. 1) We are therefore developing a prognostic tool to provide previously underserved people with targeted information about VR. This VR risk index will be created on the basis of routine data from the German Pension Insurance (DRV) and the Federal Employment Agency (BA). 2) The project uses a mixed-methods approach and a cross-agency approach to investigate whether VRservices are up-to-date and take sufficient account of the needs of, for example, a) a changing demographic population and increased female labor force participation, b) a pull effect of the labor market and c) changing expectations of social policy. The motives for not claiming social policy benefits, such as VR, are explored qualitatively.