Dirk Vervenne, MD, Manon Ziech, PhD, Femke Abma, PhD, Haitze de Vries, PhD, Jennifer Coffeng, PhD, Sandra Brouwer, MD PhD.
My name is Dirk Vervenne. Since May 2024, I have started my PhD research on social insurance literacy at the KCVG as a junior researcher. Previously, I worked as a trainee at UWV SMZ, team Knowledge & Innovation (K&I). In addition to my work as a PhD candidate at the KCVG I will continue to work as a researcher at UWV SMZ, team K&I.
Finding and understanding information and successfully navigating processes in the social security setting depends on one’s own skills, but also on the way that required information is presented and communicated. All this is brought together in the concept of ‘social insurance literacy’, which is defined as “the extent to which individuals can obtain, understand and act on information in a social insurance system, related to the comprehensibility of the information provided by the system.”
Clients with limited social insurance literacy find it more difficult to explain their own situation and stand up for themselves in conversations with professionals. They have difficulty understanding the consequences of their illness for their ability to work. Clients also do not always understand how legislation and regulations influence decisions and what the arguments are for UWV to make a decision.
A questionnaire survey among over 500 WIA beneficiaries from the online client panel of the UWV showed that 35% of the participants had limited social insurance literacy.[1] It was found that social security skills are related to various socio-economic background factors and that clients often experience problems in multiple areas. In-depth interviews and focus groups showed that understanding decisions, aided by understandable explanations by UWV professionals, is an important point of attention.
The findings from the first problem analysis, such as the high percentage of clients from the client panel with limited social insurance literacy and the above-mentioned points of attention with regard to communication between client and professional, as well as the perceived sense of justice of the assessment, are the reasons for this PhD research.
In this project we want to further develop the concept of social insurance literacy and make it applicable within insurance medicine and occupational health care. The goal is to develop an intervention in the field of social insurance literacy. In doing so, we build on existing scientific knowledge in the field of health literacy and intervention possibilities. Important aspects in this are the interaction between client and professional, as well as the mutual cooperation between professionals in the chain of social insurance and (occupational) health care.
The research consists of several components. A questionnaire study among clients of UWV will investigate the role of social insurance literacy in the extent to which the social security system is experienced as fair and just by clients. Literature research in combination with qualitative research will be used to develop the intervention. Finally, the intervention will be evaluated in practice. The project will be designed in terms of content in consultation with professionals and clients.
Email: d.j.h.m.vervenne@umcg.nl
Date last updated: November 18th, 2024.
