Development Opportunities of Disabled People in Selected EU Countries: A Comparison

Abstract

The aim of the article is to identify good practices aimed at helping people with disabilities, carried out in such countries as Sweden, Denmark or Poland. Although all countries provide specific benefits for people with disabilities, there are, however, such solutions which are only available for the insured within the given system. And thus, actions supporting people with disabilities in the labour market are addressed both to those concerned and to their employers. Within the first category especially important for people with disabilities are: Personal and assistant’s help which increase, due to their specificity, the possibility to learn, take up a job by a person with disabilities and stay in the labour market. The second category of activities is addressed to employers. These include: Co-financing the salary of a disabled employee, covering the costs of adjusting the workplace for a disabled employee, covering part of the costs of professional adaptation of the employee, if the disability arose at the workplace, and covering the costs of commuting to work of the disabled employee. And although the state creates employment policy through these instruments, unfortunately the effectiveness of these measures varies. Positive effects measured by the high employment rate in this group of people and the low level of their passivity are evident only in countries such as Sweden or Denmark which conduct active measures at the local and regional level. It is difficult, however, to notice them in Poland.