A/HRC/43/41/Add.3 and 65 per cent two years later.12 The Special Rapporteur also received complaints that the national inclusion initiative was mainly based on the goodwill of employers. 50. The Special Rapporteur is particularly concerned that persons with intellectual, psychosocial or severe disabilities are mostly excluded from the open labour market. Most of them receive a disability pension from when they reach the age of 18, or are employed in sheltered workshops. During her visit to Fossheim the Special Rapporteur was informed of long waiting lists and of a general shortage of approximately 10,000 workplaces for persons with disabilities willing to join the labour market. In that regard, she welcomes the Helt med! strategy to increase the participation of persons with intellectual disabilities in ordinary work life. 51. The Government needs to make more efforts to enable the effective inclusion of persons with disabilities in the workplace, particularly youths and persons with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities. She suggests assessing the socioeconomic cost of excluding persons with disabilities from employment. G. Social protection 52. Norway has a very comprehensive and robust social protection system, which includes various types of income support and benefits targeting persons with disabilities, which are regulated by the National Insurance Act. They include universal national insurance scheme benefits (such as work assessment allowances, health-care benefits and cash benefits) as well as disability-specific schemes (for example, disability benefit, basic benefit, attendance benefit and technical aids). Parents of children with disabilities can also access other benefits, such as care, training and attendance allowances. 53. Under the universal scheme, disability benefit is granted to compensate for work loss capacity to any person aged between 18 and 67 whose income capacity is permanently reduced by at least 50 per cent owing to illness, injury or impairment. Determination of disability involves an assessment of work capacity conducted by professionals with different backgrounds from the Labour and Welfare Organization. There are approximately 340,000 beneficiaries of disability benefit. The Special Rapporteur particularly appreciates as good practice the flexibility of the disability benefit, which can be adjusted monthly, based on additional income earned, and allows beneficiaries to adjust how much they work. When the benefit is granted, a limit for additional income is determined. If the person has a pensionable income above this limit, the benefit will be reduced proportionally. 54. The Special Rapporteur was informed that owing to the low levels of employment among persons with disabilities, many depend entirely on social protection schemes. In 2017, the national insurance scheme was the main source of income for 29 per cent of persons with disabilities compared to 8 per cent of the general population. 13 Consequently, the standard of living of persons with disabilities in Norway is lower than that of persons without disabilities and some of their extra expenses may not be adequately covered. In that respect, the lack of appropriate support services in the community often increases the extra cost of having a disability. The Special Rapporteur encourages the Government to pay close attention to the economic differences between persons with and without disabilities and to take measures to address this imbalance. H. Living independently in the community 55. Since the deinstitutionalization process carried out in the 1990s, municipalities have been responsible for ensuring the provision of most benefits and services to persons with 12 13 Office of the Auditor General of Norway, investigation into the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration’s management and use of market initiatives (2018), available from www.riksrevisjonen.no/rapporter-mappe/no-2017-2018/forvaltning-og-bruk-av-arbeidsmarkedstiltaki-nav/ (in Norwegian). See www.bufdir.no/Statistikk_og_analyse/Nedsatt_funksjonsevne/Okonomi/Inntekt_og_ytelser/ (in Norwegian). 11