The challenge for the social security system is to provide sufficient income security without taking away the incentive to work. Where lies the optimum income protection? How can all parties involved with the implementation of social security be stimulated to help people get a job?

Questions we are able to answer for you involve market forces in social security, financial incentives, measuring the effects of policy and the costs and benefits of interventions.

Sub expertise

The market for social security has private and public players. Governments are concerned with questions such as: Does the hybrid market work for disability insurance? Is there enough competition between insurers themselves and between insurers and UWV? Private parties may have questions about improper competition by public competitors. We are more than happy to answer these questions for you.

 

What are optimal financial incentives for institutions (municipality/UWV), employers and employees to decrease the use of social security? We have a lot of experience in designing and evaluating funding systems. We designed a new distribution model for the distribution of social security budgets among municipalities. We are able to advise you, as a municipality, on the budget you have received for social security. Here we answer questions such as: how is my budget constructed? Why is there a shortage or surplus?

What are the consequences of policies such as continued payment of wages during illness, the introduction of the Work and Social Security Act (Wet werk en bijstand, WWB) or differentiation in premiums? We also study the effects of specific interventions by municipalities, UWV or private service providers to help people get a job. We perform these analyses for the government, municipalities, UWV and private insurers. For this, we use advanced econometric methods and data on a personal level from the CBS.

What are the consequences of social security policies, such as the continued payment of wages during sickness leave, the introduction of the Participation law or the introduction of options in pensions? We conduct research into the effects of specific interventions of municipalities, UWV, private service providers which aim to help people in finding jobs.

Our research is commissioned by the government, municipalities, UWV and private insurers. In these studies, we carry out interviews, apply advanced econometric methods and analyse personal data provided by CBS.

Following the effects study, we can calculate the costs and benefits of specific interventions. This is possible for specific actors, such as municipalities or UWV, but this could also be done for society as a whole.

We have written a guide for performing cost-benefit analyses in the social domain. This guide is obligatory for all cost-benefit analyses performed for the government.