Access to Social Security Justice (UZH / ZHAW)

Head: Prof. Dr. Tilmann Altwicker (UZH) and Prof. Dr. Thomas Gächter (UZH)

In cooperation with Dr. Szilvia Altwicker-Hámori (ZHAW) and Prof. Dr. Julia Dratva (ZHAW)

Research Team: Daniel Gerber, Gian Heimann, Petra Koller, Polina Pokrovskaya, Andrea Vuksic, Laura Whittlestone

Project Funding (partial): Foundation for Scientific Research at the University of Zurich (project no. STWF-20-001) / UZH / ZHAW

The project analyses access to social security justice of persons with disabilities. In particular, we examine (i) who files a complaint in the case of rejected social security benefits with the Social Security Court of the Canton of Zurich (SVGer) and (ii) the factors for a resolution in favour of the claimant at the SVGer. For example, we analyse how the age, medical diagnosis and legal representation of the claimant are associated to the court’s final decision. We investigate access to social security justice using a unique dataset constructed within the project. For this purpose, the legal cases are processed for statistical analysis by semi-automated and by manual coding. We investigate who makes up the group of claimants (on the basis of demographic, socio-economic, health-related and legal aspects). Furthermore, we use multinomial logistic regressions to analyse the relationship between demographic, socioeconomic, health-related and legal factors and the final decision of the court.

This project is the third part of an overall project entitled "Young individuals with disabilities: Disability insurance benefit application, labor market integration and access to social security justice.