This paper analyses the impact of institutional reforms in the Netherlands on the social security network. We distinguish between disability, sickness, unemployment, employment protection legislation and active labour market policy reforms over the period 1980-2005 using both qualitative and econometric analyses. Our findings are compared to OECD institutional indicators constructed by OECD, following Blanchard and Wolfers (1999) and Nickell et al (2001, 2005). We show that these indicators are far too rough and do not correctly pick up the reforms and developments that took place over time.