Effects and determinants of the utilization of vocational rehabilitation services: a propensity score analysis (LTA-PRO)

One of the key challenges for social security systems is to prevent people from leaving the labor market prematurely due to health problems, in order to ensure participation. To meet these challenges, people in Germany have access to vocational rehabilitation (VR) services. The main provider of VR in Germany is the German Pension Insurance. The range of available VR services is diverse and includes employer services (financial support to an employer), services to maintain/obtain a job through work aids or adjustments, and vocational retraining services (one-year or two-year retraining and integration benefits). VR is a complex process and is often characterized by different types of services and sequences of consecutive services, mainly including vocational retraining services. Evidence on VR services and specific service sequences is still limited. In addition, there are only a few analyses that have examined factors influencing the utilization of VR. The aim of our research is to analyze the effects of VR and specific service sequences and to investigate the determinants of VR utilization. For the analyses we consider people who have completed medical rehabilitation and compare the outcomes of people who have received VR with comparable people who have not received VR. The research questions are addressed through a secondary data analysis using data from the Rehabilitation Statistics Database (RSD) of the German Pension Insurance. The primary outcome is the rate of disability pension rate. Secondary outcomes include earnings and the duration of transfer benefits as well as stable employment. We consider a follow-up period of at least 60 months after completion of medical rehabilitation. The findings of this research project add to the existing evidence on the benefits of VR utilization of a representative database of the German Pension Insurance and can be used to make evidence-based decisions in the selection and management of services.