Insurance in the event of incapacity for work Young people receive more disability pensions – psychologist says: “We have to trust them more”
A new study shows that IV claims for mental illnesses have increased significantly, especially among boys. But a psychologist says: “There is no snowflake generation.” The young people have not become less resilient.
Help with reintegrating into working life: A woman works in the packaging factory of the Turning Point Foundation in Wettingen.
Image: Sandra Ardizzone
Disability insurance (IV) is under constant criticism. For years the fund has had a hole of 10 billion francs, which it owes to the AHV. For years she has been criticized by insured people for not paying in times of need. At the same time, it is said here and there that IV benefits would also be available to people who could actually work. In 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019, the IV underwent significant revisions. Now the Federal Social Insurance Office has investigated what this has caused.
The total number of all IV pensions is misleading: the total number of IV pension recipients fell significantly between 2005 and 2017 and has remained constant since then. But this is primarily because large cohorts of IV pension recipients are coming and have come to AHV age. If you take a closer look, the revisions have changed a lot. Addiction is now viewed as an illness, which has led to a sharp increase in such pensions: from 0.6 percent in 2019 to 2.2 percent of all new pensions by 2021. Part-time pensions are also easier to obtain today, from which women in particular benefit. The proportion of such pensions increased from 9 to 12 percent in 2018 and has been stable since then.
Increase in pensions for mentally ill young adults
But the clearest increase can be observed in new pensions for psychological reasons: In total, these have increased from 42 percent (2017) to 49 percent (2021). Or to put it another way: pensions due to mental illnesses rose from 1.2 to 1.6 per thousand in the population, i.e. to 1.6 IV recipients per 1000 people. The proportion of new pensioners with other causes of disability remained constant at 1.7 per thousand.
What is particularly worth thinking about: The increase in IV pensions due to mental illnesses is most noticeable among people under 35 years of age. This is all the more remarkable because the risk of registering for an IV actually only increases with age.
Psychologist Niklas Baer, who works for the company WorkMed to integrate people with mental illnesses into work, is critical of the development. The proportion of pensions for psychological reasons among 18 to 24 year olds has increased fivefold in the last thirty years and tripled among 25 to 29 year olds. “We have had a long-standing, steady increase in the number of young people who are unable to enter the job market or who are unable to stay there.” Baer sees the reasons for this not only in the IV. “Psychological problems have always been common, that is not new. But the fact that more and more young people are being retired, including in other countries, is a social problem.”
“Mentally ill people are given less credit”
Psychologist Niklas Baer is committed to work integration.
Image: zvg
Niklas Baer does not see the increase in mentally-related IV pension applications and new pensions as a sign that young people are generally doing worse psychologically. “There is no epidemiological data that shows this,” says Baer. Rather, psychological problems would be clarified and treated earlier. “This is actually progress,” says Baer, because it reduces the risk of an illness becoming chronic. But his hypothesis is that at the same time there is a negative side effect: “Suffering comes to the fore and people have less confidence in young people that they can work.”
But disability insurance is no longer a simple fund. It has developed from a pension to an integration insurance in order to reintegrate people who have become unable to work into the work process as far as possible.
However, Baer criticizes the therapies: There is not enough focus on the ability to work. “It should also be about making people more resilient in the work environment.” This requires closer cooperation between IV, therapists and vocational training and companies. Ultimately, work itself also has therapeutic elements: “It provides structure in everyday life, offers social contacts, a sense of achievement and self-confidence.”
The psychologist does not believe that young adults as a whole are less resilient than before. In certain things they are less resilient, in others more. They are often more resilient than older people, especially when dealing with digital devices and platforms, but also when it comes to psychological problems. “Young people are talking more openly about mental health problems; in the past, people were much more ashamed. I don’t see a generation of snowflakes.” It is the perception of all of us that has changed. “Today we tend to think: You can’t work with this suffering. This is not the fault of the young, but of the older ones. We have to trust them more.”
So does the increase in new pensions for mental illnesses have nothing to do with the IV revisions, especially those from 2015 and 2017, as a result of which mental illnesses have since been examined and are no longer considered to be fundamentally surmountable? The study authors write that there is no statistical evidence for this because detailed information was not available. But the revisions would have affected the likelihood of receiving a pension due to mental illness.
The most important changes in IV
2015: According to a ruling by the Federal Court, the ability to work in the case of psychosomatic suffering must now be examined in an open-ended manner. Before that, an IV was only available in exceptional cases for psychological complaints, as these were considered treatable.
2017: Now this regulation applies to all mental illnesses. And IV pensions are now generally also possible for mild and moderate depression.
2018: After the European Court of Human Rights criticized Switzerland, the Federal Council adjusted the pension entitlement for part-time work (mixed method). Until now, it was not possible to receive IV benefits for unpaid housework, which placed women at a severe disadvantage.
2019: The Federal Court recognizes addiction as an illness. Previously, addicts only received IV benefits if the addiction resulted in an illness that limited their ability to work.
The chances of getting a disability pension have decreased
In individual cases, the probability of receiving a disability pension has not increased despite the revisions. At least from 2012 to 2017, the chance of receiving a disability pension within four years of an application fell by almost 1.5 percentage points to 8 to 9 percent – regardless of the illness, but more so for mental health pensions. The team of authors states that “the absolute increase in new pensions is not due to the fact that (…) pensions are spoken of more frequently, but rather that pensions are spoken of somewhat less frequently as the number of new registrations increases significantly.”
The IV itself puts this into perspective. The media office writes: The fact that the probability of retirement has decreased could also be due to the fact that other IV benefits such as integration measures were provided first. Such awards have increased sharply since the IV revision came into force in 2008.
Personal attitudes of the experts play a role
The study also examined whether the new so-called structured evidence procedure has improved the work for the IV offices and comes to the conclusion that the pension check has become more systematic, but also more complex. The fact that it is no longer just about a specific diagnosis, but rather about the concrete effects is praised. But the associated assessment of how much a person’s personality and illness affects their ability to work is difficult.
In addition, there are the individual attitudes of the actors at the IV offices and legal advice. Both sides find the decisions to be more appropriate than before, but also mention that personal attitudes continue to influence the investigations. After all, the structured evidence procedure put the significance of the experience into perspective somewhat.
A recent SRF documentary film showed how differently the commissioned experts sometimes work for the IV. It primarily criticizes the German neurologist Henning Mast’s company Pmeda AG, which was notorious for its rejection decisions. The company has not been allowed to prepare IV reports for a year and is now being liquidated. Germany is also investigating tax fraud: Pmeda only appeared to have its headquarters in Switzerland. Not only did many experts work from Germany, thousands of Swiss patient files were also stored in Wolfenbüttel, Germany.
In conclusion, the study authors write: The professional competence of all those involved is crucial, and high-quality external reports are important so that the necessary information can be collected completely and without distortion. When asked, however, the IV interpreted this as a “picked-out sentence” that was expressed during surveys. She sees no reason to address this and, for example, increase the quality requirements.
