FRANCE The

Trends
emanating from a single statistical source, for the older age groups
of the population. 2
Before the age of 55, unemployment benefit is the most important
source of income for those not working. For men older than 55, the
number of unemployed increases and after old-age pensions
unemployment benefit is the largest category of income. For
women, unemployment remains at roughly the same level. Perhaps
the most striking feature of these figures is the large number of
elderly people whose main source of non-wage income is sickness
benefit. Among 40-year-olds only 500 to 1,000 people per age class
receive sickness benefit, with a similar pattern for both men and
women. However, after the age of 50 the number of women on
sickness benefit increases dramatically. Indeed this is the main
source of income for women between the ages of 55 and 61. For
practically all ages between 55 and 64 more people receive their
main income from sickness benefit than they do from disability
pensions.
Thus, it is relatively uncommon that an individual leaves work
directly to a disability pension. The most common path is via either
unemployment or sick benefit. Among all those who do not work in
these age groups, 256,000 received their main income in 1999 from a
disability pension.
The category “pension” includes the state pension, private pensions
and those regulated by collective agreements. From the age of 59
and onwards the pension is the most important source of income for
those not working. Men take up pensions slightly earlier than
women.
While the cross-sectional data presented in Figures 3(a) and 3(b) could
be interpreted in a life-cycle perspective, it is of course of interest to
observe how the various categories in these figures have varied during
the last decade.
Figure 3(a): Main source of income outside the labour market, men aged 40-64 in 1999. 3
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
Disability pension
Sick benefit
Unemployed
Pension
The total number of newly-awarded disability pensions is at roughly
the same level in 2000 as in 1990, but the number has almost halved
for the 60 to 64-year-olds (see Figure 4). Moreover, there was
considerable variation during the 1990s for 55 to 59-year-olds.
Numbers increased up to 1993, in the wake of the severe recession of
the early 1990s, but subsequently declined up to the end of the 1990s
only to increase rather rapidly in 2000. Indeed the recent increase
contributes largely to the total figure.
We noted from the Figures 3(a) and 3(b) above that sickness benefit
is an important main source of income for many older workers and
particularly women in their mid-fifties. The increase in sickness
benefit is probably the single most prominent labour market issue
currently in Sweden and has increased dramatically since the mid
1990s. From Table 3 one can observe that even during the last four
year period for which there is compatible data (1998–2001), the
number of days of sickness benefit has almost doubled. The highest
number of days of sickness benefit is for women in the age class 55-
59. For men, the age groups 55-59 and 60-64 show roughly the same
levels. One can note appreciably higher figures for women in all the
age groups presented. It can also be noted that women work
predominately in the public sector.
One should note that the data in Table 4 does not include the first 14
days of sickness, which is paid by the employer. As most sick periods
are shorter than 14 days, the figures are appreciably higher than
presented above. Statistics from the Employers Federation for
Industry show a monotonic increase in the length of sickness benefit
as age increases. Thus, the duration of the period of sickness benefit
explains a major part of the high figures for older workers. A
comparison of the declining disability pension figures and the
increasing sickness benefit figures may suggest some degree of
substitution from disability pensions to sickness benefit in the last
decade.
0
40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64
2 This data comes from RAMS at Statistics Sweden and was kindly provided by Martin Lagnerö.
3 The category of unemployed also includes social assistance recipients and those in active labour market policy measures. Sickness benefit includes also those with
income from work injury benefit and other payments due to illness. There are other main sources of income, such as parental leave, education grants and capital
income, but these are relatively few and are not included in the figure.
150 Spring 2003 | European Employment Observatory Review