Making up incapacity for work? How government officials, medical experts and disabled workers brought incapacity for work into being in the first Dutch social security law (1901-1967)

In 1901 the Ongevallenwet, the first act regulating the insurance of workers in cases of accidents, was introduced in the Netherlands. In the historiography of the welfare state, introductions of acts like the Ongevallenwet mark a moment in time in which the collective started to take care of individual misfortune. This new form of state funded compensation for the loss of income due to disabilities came with a pressing individual responsibility to not misuse this social security arrangement. The regulations have constantly been tightened to make sure ‘the right people’ receive benefits. But w... Mehr ...