Disability, long-term conditions and poverty
Most studies underestimate levels of poverty among disabled people. This study shows the size of these underestimates, and explores the difficulty in escaping poverty through paid work – and how policymakers might tackle this.
Key points
- Poverty among disabled people is consistently underestimated. This
study uses two different adjustments, each finding at least a ‘missing
million’ of people in poverty in households with a disabled person.
- Making society less disabling will reduce poverty among disabled
people. Possible ways of doing this include improving affordability and
accessibility of transport and housing, developing standards for
consumer devices, stopping legal discrimination, better use of
technology, and making markets for assistive technologies work
more effectively.
- Disabled people are less likely to be working and more likely to be
low paid. There are four main ways that this could be tackled:
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- The benefits system: simply removing people from benefits cannot be
seen as a sign of success. Rather, changes are needed so that the system
doesn’t stop people from being able to work; including flexible,
portable benefits are needed that allow people to move to areas where
there are more (and more suitable) jobs.
- Specialist programmes can help people return-to-work when they
include personalisation rather than sharp targets. Intensive in-work
support with employer subsidies can make a difference.
- Early intervention can help, including better workplace practices
and responsive health systems, as well as a healthy psychosocial
work environment.
- Finally, employers are critical – many disabled people simply face
limited opportunities. There are some good managers, yet a common
perception that employing disabled people involves extra costs, and a
limit to ‘reasonable’ adjustments. Stronger actions may therefore be
necessary, including regulation and incentives.
- Finally, disabled people stressed that work is not always the
solution; that all the policies above should resist the temptation to
simplify the diversity of disability; and that it may be necessary to
change the current public debate. The idea that ‘work is the best route
out of poverty’ clearly cannot apply to all disabled people, and
reducing the aim of poverty reduction to simply improved access to
employment would be counterproductive.
