The CEO of TR, Huld Magnúsdóttir, discussed social insurance statistics in her address, revealing that women make up 61% of disability pension recipients, and in the 60-66 age group, 33% of all women receive disability benefits. The proportion of women over 55 receiving disability pensions from social insurance, as a percentage of women residing in Iceland, reaches up to 26% in some age groups. This means that in some cohorts after the age of 60, one in four women in Iceland is disabled. Furthermore, 60% of all women receiving disability pensions are over 50 years old. The largest group leaving the labor market on disability pensions are women over fifty. This statistics, along with changes to the social insurance system taking effect on September 1st, were the main drivers for TR's initiative to research the status of women over fifty receiving disability pensions. "This is a large group, making it a societal issue. It's necessary to assess the impact of the new system by obtaining baseline information so we can determine whether the system change had an effect, especially since many new elements are in the pipeline, such as incentives for labor market participation of people with disability assessments, a new integrated expert assessment, coordination teams, and increased services," Huld said at the symposium.

Sigríður Ingibjörg Ingadóttir, an economist at BSRB, pointed out in her address the connection between the research findings regarding the strain on women in the labor market, care responsibilities, and gender-based violence, and the focus of the Women's Year, which demands improvements in these areas. The research clearly shows the effects of difficult conditions in the workplace and at home on women, which can lead to them being much more likely to receive disability pensions than men.

In her address, the CEO of the Administration of Occupational Safety and Health, Hanna Sigríður Gunnsteinsdóttir, discussed how the research results indicate that there are widespread issues in the workplaces of the survey respondents, with about 33% or more having experienced difficult interactions or mental abuse at work. She drew attention to an awareness campaign that the Administration has conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Housing.

Ari Klængur Jónsson, project manager at the Social Science Research Institute, presented the main findings of the research.

Single women responsible for raising children

A higher proportion of women receiving disability pensions are single, divorced or separated, and single parents compared to women in the control group and men receiving disability pensions. This group is more likely to have children who have been chronically ill or diagnosed with disorders or impairments than the comparison group, and they were much more likely to provide full-time care for their children. The same was true when compared to men of the same age receiving disability pension payments.

Shift work and demanding work conditions

The main findings show that women receiving disability pension payments have, throughout their careers, been more likely to work shifts, often worked in uncomfortable physical positions, and used repetitive movements at work, in addition to having to deal with demanding social or emotionally difficult situations at work to a greater extent than women who do not receive disability pension payments.

Victims of violence

Women receiving disability pension payments are more likely to have experienced physical violence, both as children and adults, than women in the comparison group. They had also more often been subjected to bullying or mental abuse.

Difficult financial circumstances

Women receiving disability pension payments were more likely to have been evicted from rental housing or lost their own residential property. Furthermore, many more women in the research group than women in the comparison group said that it had been rather or very difficult to make ends meet financially for the family before they first started experiencing health problems, compared to the last ten years for the comparison group.

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Implementation and Methodology

The research on which the report is based was intended to gain increased knowledge about the reasons that could underlie the high proportion of women aged 50-66 who receive disability pension. The methodology of the research is based on a comparison of the circumstances and experiences of people depending on whether they are a man or a woman receiving disability pension on one hand, and on the other hand, by comparing women who receive disability pension with a sample of women of the same age from the Social Science Research Institute's online panel, called the comparison group.

The results of the research shed light on the often difficult circumstances and background of women who need disability pension payments in the last years of their career. It also contains a wealth of information about the circumstances of women and men on disability pension and women in the comparison group aged 50 - 66 years.