The Economics of Inclusion
Fiscal analysis, policy research, and expert perspectives on the economic case for work inclusion.
Fiscal Case
Business Case
Social Return on Investment
Labour Market
Policy & Incentives
Cost of Exclusion
Fiscal Case
All pieces (2) →Taxation measures to support people with disabilities in the EU
European Parliamentary Research Service briefing (Pieter Baert, December 2024) for the FISC subcommittee hearing on tax and disability. In 2021, EU Member States allocated €300 billion in social benefits to people with disabilities. It compares disability tax credits, exemptions and reduced VAT across Member States, and notes that fear of steep benefit cuts on taking up work deters people with disabilities from joining the labour market.
2024 Ageing Report. Economic & Budgetary Projections for the EU Member States (2022-2070)
The European Commission (DG ECFIN) and the Economic Policy Committee's 2024 Ageing Report (Institutional Paper 279, April 2024) projects public spending on pensions, health, long-term care and education to 2070, with disability pensions as a separate scheme. EU spending on disability pensions is projected to stay at 0.8% of GDP from 2022 to 2070; Lithuania (+0.7 pps) and Slovakia (+0.6 pps) rise most, Croatia falls (−0.9 pps).
Business Case
All pieces (1) →Labour Market
All pieces (8) →Disability statistics - unemployment and people outside the labour force
Eurostat Statistics Explained article (data extracted October 2025) based on the 2024 EU Labour Force Survey. Unemployment among 15–64-year-olds with a severe disability was 11.6% versus 5.9% without disability; 45.0% of those unemployed had been jobless for a year or more, and 67.7% were outside the labour force versus 21.8%.
Employment and social developments in Europe 2025
European Commission ESDE review (September 2025) with a section on persons with disabilities as untapped labour. In 2024 just over 56% of 20–64-year-olds with disabilities participated in the labour market versus about 84% without, and the disability employment gap was about 24 pp, up from 22.7 pp in 2014. It notes employers often overestimate the cost-benefit of hiring and that potential loss of benefits discourages participation.
Employment of persons with disabilities: Statistics – 2022 data
European Disability Expertise statistical report by Eszter Zólyomi for the European Commission (State of affairs July 2024, published 2025), tracking EU disability employment over 2012–2022 from EU-SILC, EHIS and EU-LFS. The employment rate of persons with disabilities reached 54.3% in 2022, while the gap with persons without disabilities only edged down from 22.3 to 21.4 percentage points over the decade.
Policy & Incentives
All pieces (6) →Incentivising employment of persons with disabilities in the open labour market – mapping of national policies, strategies and measures (Thematic Review 2024, Synthesis Report)
European Commission thematic review (European Centre of Expertise; Nicola Duell and Inga Pavlovaite, published 2025) mapping incentives across all 27 Member States. In 14 Member States disability benefits sit below the minimum wage and/or unemployment benefit, and fear of losing disability status on reassessment deters work. Thorough evaluations are rare; person-centred, work-ability-focused approaches are found most effective.
Study on alternative employment models for persons with disabilities: Set-up, working conditions and pathways to the open labour market in inclusive enterprises and sheltered workshops – Final report
European Commission (DG EMPL) study by empirica and Sozialhelden (2025) on sheltered workshops, inclusive enterprises and supported employment, with in-depth analysis of eight Member States, 20 good practices and 16 recommendations. Transitions to the open labour market are very low: Germany's sheltered workshops had a 0.35% transition rate in 2019, and only Sweden (Samhall) reaches a significant 6–7%.
European Accessibility Act: Impact Assessment
The European Commission's 2015 impact assessment for the European Accessibility Act proposal found that divergent national accessibility requirements fragment the EU market for accessible products and services, and argued that better accessibility would help persons with disabilities participate more in education and employment.
Cost of Exclusion
All pieces (3) →Mental health of young people in a digital era: Cost of non-Europe report
Cost of non-Europe study for the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), written by Ipsos and Milieu, July 2026. Its EU-27 model puts the cost of mental ill-health among people aged 10–24 at about €177 billion in 2024, and about €1.68 trillion over 2024–2033 if nothing changes. The cost covers healthcare, social protection, education and lost labour productivity (absenteeism, presenteeism, reduced lifetime earnings).
The Economic Case for Preventing Mental Ill Health
OECD Health Policy Studies report (30 April 2026) using microsimulation for the EU. Mental ill health is projected to lower GDP by an average 1.7% a year over 2025–2050, driven mainly by reduced workforce participation, absenteeism and presenteeism, and to account for about EUR 76 billion in annual healthcare costs (about 6% of health budgets). Scaling up interventions is largely cost-effective.
Disability statistics - poverty and income inequalities
Eurostat Statistics Explained article (EU-SILC data for 2024, extracted July 2025). In 2024, 28.8% of people with a disability in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, against 17.9% of people with no limitations. Without social transfers 68.2% of disabled people would have been at risk of poverty, against 20.7% after transfers. The article also shows a higher in-work poverty risk for disabled workers.