The Costs of Disability and the Incidence of Poverty

Both disability and poverty have been the subject of extensive research, although relatively few Australian studies have examined the relationship between them. Most poverty studies make no allowance for the higher needs (and costs) associated with disability, while few disability studies have focused on poverty among the disabled. Yet disability often leads to greater need and this will increase the risk of poverty. This paper uses data from the 1998–99 Household Expenditure Survey to estimate the costs of disability using a ‘standard of living’ approach and uses these estimates to compare poverty rates among those with and without disability. The results imply that where there is an adult in the household with a disability, poverty rates are higher even before allowing for the extra costs of disability. After account is taken of the costs of disability, estimated poverty rates rise substantially where there is a disability present. Taking account of costs that vary with the severity of the restriction associated with the disability is also shown to make a large difference to comparisons derived from conventional poverty research.     

Linking taxation and social protection: Evidence on redistribution and poverty reduction in Ethiopia

Although redistribution results from the simultaneous effects of taxes and transfers, analyses of their distributional effects in low‐income countries have largely been undertaken from singular perspectives. This article jointly assesses the distributional effect of taxes and transfers (through social protection) using Ethiopia as a case study. We find that Ethiopia's flagship social protection programme is more effective than income taxation in achieving poverty reduction, while neither policy achieves a sizeable reduction in overall inequality. We also find that Ethiopia does not currently have the capacity to close the poverty gap or to fully fund its main safety net programme using domestic income sources alone.     

The effects of income transfers on poverty reduction in people with disabilities in South Korea

Using a nationally representative sample dataset from the 2016 Korean Welfare Panel Study, we examined the anti‐poverty effects of income transfers in people with disabilities. Our findings indicate that in households with a person with a disability, income transfers decreased by 55.9% and 84.8% of the pre‐transfer poverty rate and poverty gap, respectively. Before income transfers, households with a person with a disability were 1.94 times more likely to be poor compared to those without a person with a disability. When income transfers were offered, the chance of being poor in the disability group was only 1.11 times higher than that in the non‐disability group. Findings from the aggregated data suggest that means‐tested income transfers were more effective in reducing poverty levels than social insurance or private income transfers. At the individual level, the provision of means‐tested programs was also more likely to decrease the likelihood of experiencing poverty than social insurance and private income transfers.     

Economic Well-Being Among Older-Adult Households: Variation by Veteran and Disability Status

This analysis uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to examine whether veteran and disability statuses are jointly associated with poverty and material hardship among households that include an older adult. Compared to households that do not include a person with a disability or veteran, disabled nonveteran households are more likely to be in poverty and to experience home hardship, medical hardship, and bill-paying hardship. Disabled veteran households are not significantly different in terms of poverty, but exhibit the highest odds of home hardship, medical hardship, bill-paying hardship, and food insufficiency. The implications for social work practice are discussed.     

Events that Trigger Poverty Entries and Exits*

Objective. This article examines how events—such as changes in household composition, employment status, disability status, and economic conditions—affect poverty entries and exits. We also examine whether the role these events play in poverty transitions differs in the pre‐ and post‐welfare‐reform periods. Methods. The analysis uses discrete‐time multivariate hazard models along with monthly, longitudinal data from the 1988, 1990, and 1996 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Results. Analyses show that many events are related to the likelihood of entering and exiting poverty. Of the trigger events examined, individuals living in households that experience a loss or gain of employment are the most likely to enter and exit poverty. We also find that changes in employment are more important in the 1996 to 1999 time period—after welfare reform—than in the 1988 to 1992 time period—prior to welfare reform. Finally, changes in household composition, disability status, and educational attainment are found to play a role in throwing people into poverty and helping them exit from poverty in both time periods. Conclusions. There is no single path into or out of poverty, suggesting that multiple policies can be considered to help alleviate poverty.     

Social support and stress of kin caregivers of orphaned children in Addis Ababa,Ethiopia: Implications for practice and policy

Using a mixed methods research design, this study analysed available social supports and stressors among 127 kin caregivers who were caring for HIV‐ and AIDS‐affected orphans and vulnerable children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The conceptual framework of the study was social support viewed as a buffer. Kin caregivers’ scores indicate a low level of social support and a high level of stress. The amount of support caregivers received from formal sources is considered inadequate, irregular and inconsistent. Kin caregivers’ stress is situational and largely related to poverty, especially food insecurity. Social service providers should consider programmes that strengthen support to help kin caregivers deal with major stressors. Policy makers should ensure that both specific child and caregiver supportive policies and related programmes respond to the overwhelming numbers of orphans and vulnerable children in Ethiopia through explicitly acknowledging the significant role of kinship care.     

Poverty, Social Exclusion and the Politics of Disability: Care as a Social Good and the Expenditure of Social Capital in Chuadanga, Bangladesh

People labelled with disabilities in Chuadanga, Bangladesh, are denied equitable access to social networks and formal services. In terms both of funding future formal service programmes and of designing community‐based outreach programmes, this lack of access is not a simple reflection of one's impairment but a facet of the social exclusion and stigma that is culturally ascribed to disability in Chuadanga. We utilize a social model to focus on the cultural processes initiated by the onset of illness or impairment. Our participants are drawn from four types of diagnosed disability: blindness, orthopaedic impairment, hearing impairment and mental disorder. Although this inquiry is in line with Daly's focus on how future spending on formal services to promote care and equity in Europe can be helped by searching out information that is often ignored, the particular focus of this study is Chuadanga and the research questions incorporate a disability studies perspective. The authors consider care as a social good and an expenditure of social capital, in reviewing findings from a recent empirical study of disability and employment in the Bangladesh district of Chuadanga. Regardless of disability, poverty can be a morally and socially devastating ordeal. However, the authors conclude that the added loss of social solidarity and equitable access, due to the social exclusion and stigma of disability for the families concerned, make it statistically far less likely that they will access formal services or be able to escape poverty.     

Can welfare reform make disability disappear?

I argue here that, while welfare reform policy and the disability rights movement appear to share a common agenda based on the belief that disability is a social creation which can be remedied by way of increased access to employment and social resources, their world views and objectives could not be more at odds. By demonstrating how welfare reform policy makers have opportunistically appropriated the language which frames the disability rights movement and, in the style of Orwell's Newspeak, used it to conceal an agenda which actually aims for the reverse of what it promises, I seek to show that what is being promoted as a means for increased access to a better life for disabled people could be more aptly described as a gateway to poverty.     

Factors affecting poverty among people with disabilities and antipoverty policies in South Korea

Previous studies analysed factors of poverty among people with disabilities without considering hierarchical or segmented structure by disability type or degree. Such approaches overlooked an auto-correlation problem among observations and overestimated the significance of the coefficient. In this study, a hierarchical generalised linear model (HGLM) was used to overcome these problems. This study found that sex, age, educational level, health condition, employment, being head of the household, area of residence, number of household members, and employment and work-life discrimination all had a significant effect on poverty among people with disabilities. The author suggests more detailed antipoverty policies.     

Poverty of Disability Households and Antipoverty Policies in the United States and Korea

This study compares the income of households with a disabled member to that of households without a disabled member in the U.S. and Korea using secondary analyses. It also compares the income of different subgroups by the types, number, and onsets of disabilities. Finally, it examines the effects on poverty of various income sources, including means-tested cash benefits for disability households.     

Material Hardship,Poverty, and Disability Among Working‐Age Adults*

Objectives. We used data from the 1996 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation to examine the extent to which working‐age people with disabilities experience several types of material hardships. Methods. We constructed a series of logistic regression models to assess the importance of disability to material hardship experiences after controlling for income and other sociodemographic characteristics. Results. The findings indicate that disability is an important determinant of material hardship even after controlling for these factors. We also found that a large majority of the low‐income respondents reporting a material hardship also reported being work‐limited for some period of time. Conclusions. Our findings provide support for policies that account for disability‐related expenditures and needs when determining eligibility for means‐tested assistance programs, and highlight an important limitation of the official poverty measure—it overstates the relative economic well‐being of people with disabilities.     

Disability poverty and ageing in regional Australia: The impact of disability income reforms for indigenous Australians

Australian disability policy has undergone considerable reform since the early 2000s. While recent research and scholarship has largely focused on the new National Disability Insurance Scheme, there is a dearth of research that examines the impact of reform to the Disability Support Pension, and even less so the effects on Indigenous Australians living with disability. This is surprising as a higher proportion of Indigenous Australians live with disability than the non‐Indigenous population. This article pays particular attention to the experiences of Aboriginal Australians who have acquired a disability after extensive years of working (25–40 years), yet are still of workforce age (less than 65 years of age). Because of tightened eligibility criteria for the Disability Support Pension, people in this group are placed onto the lower paid Newstart Allowance (general unemployment benefit). The article illustrates the high levels of poverty that Aboriginal Australians with disabilities experience daily, and the ongoing costs they incur in managing Newstart conditionality to maintain continued access to the general unemployment benefit.     

Deprivation and Poverty in Hong Kong

Despite high and rising real incomes, the poverty rate in Hong Kong remains a cause of community concern. The government has been reluctant to set a poverty line, although the recently (re‐)established Commission on Poverty has recommended that a poverty line for Hong Kong is developed. Against this background, this article reports results derived from a new deprivation study designed to shed new light on the living standards of the poorest in the community. Reflecting international studies, deprivation is identified as existing when people do not have and cannot afford items regarded by a majority in the community as being essential for all. A list of 35 basic needs items is identified as meeting this definition, the results indicating that around 30 per cent are deprived of at least two items, over 18 per cent are deprived of at least four items and 10 per cent are deprived of at least eight items. Deprivation rates are particularly high among items that meet basic health needs. A mean deprivation score index (MDIS) is then used to compare the degree of deprivation experienced by different groups, and indicates that deprivation is most pronounced amongst those receiving Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA), people affected by a disability and recent migrants. The overlap between deprivation and income poverty is also relatively low, which suggests both measures have a role to play in identifying who is most vulnerable and guiding where policy change is most urgently needed.     

The relevance of institutions and people’s preferences in the PSNP and IN-SCT programmes in Ethiopia

The effective implementation of social protection interventions is key for achieving positive change. The existing literature mainly focuses on issues related to programme design and impact, rather than the factors that influence the emergence, expansion and provision of these programmes. This article builds on the recent literature that indicates that the quality of institutions and people’s preferences play an important role in the implementation of social protection. It does so by using Ethiopia and its Productive Safety Net Programme – one of the largest social protection programmes in sub-Saharan Africa – as a case study, thereby contributing to debates on how to implement social protection more effectively, particularly in settings of widespread poverty and relatively low levels of institutional capacity. Based on primary qualitative data, the article finds that greater institutional quality at the local level is associated with the more effective provision of social protection. The ability of community members and social protection clients to voice preferences can lead to adaptations in implementation, although the extent to which this occurs is highly gendered.     

An Ethnography of Social Assistance to Ethiopian Children by Non‐governmental Organizations: Types,Adequacy and Predictability

Although in Africa social assistance is provided by both state and non‐state actors, systematic research has paid little attention to the aggregate services provided by the latter. This is so despite the significance of the aggregate size, diversity, investment and coverage of the services provided by non‐state actors in the continent. This article reports on an ethnographic assessment of the nature of aggregate social assistance services provided to Ethiopian children by non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) in Africa, taking the cases of services provided by 38 NGOs that run 52 social protection interventions in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. Data collection employed semi‐structured interviews with officers of the 38 NGOs and exploratory interviews with 25 key informants. Analysis of the ethnographic data revealed that social assistance by NGOs was insufficient, unpredictable, erratic and of inferior quality and, hence, failed to meet the conditions that could make social assistance an effective instrument for breaking the intergenerational transmission of poverty. The analysis also revealed that the same social assistance was not large enough to undermine recipients' commitment to work. The article concludes by recommending the establishment of a social welfare system in Ethiopia that can effectively regulate social assistance in order to ensure the quality of design and implementation, and the integration of discreet social assistance projects.     

Psychiatric Non-institutionalisation: Whose Needs are Served?

This article outlines the social problems experienced by persons with a chronic psychiatric disability, and their families. The disabled person's lifestyle is characterised by poor social and vocational skills, poverty, inadequate accommodation and alienation. Many of these problems increase the dependence of the disabled person, emotionally and financially, on their family of origin. The author suggests that these social problems will only be ameliorated if family members are provided with active support and information, and if hospital and community services are integrated and complementary. The disabled person's quality of life can only be improved by accessible intensive social and vocational rehabilitation programs. As these issues are not being comprehensively addressed at the present time family self-help organisations such as the Association of Relatives and Friends of the Mentally III (ARAFMI) will need to politicise their plight.     

Beyond Income: A Social Justice Approach to Assessing Poverty among Older Adults with Chronic Kidney Disease

ABSTRACT

How social workers define and assess poverty is a matter of economic and social justice. Recent conceptual and measurement advances point to a multidimensional definition of poverty which captures material, social, and political deprivations. Using data from a survey, this article describes how nephrology social workers assess poverty among older adults living with a chronic kidney disease (N = 52). Results suggest respondents already conceive of poverty as a multidimensional experience, support awareness-raising about poverty, and primarily assess poverty by employment status, income, access to transportation, and education. Opportunities to expand poverty assessment in future work are promising.     

Breaking away from the cycle of poverty: The case of Malaysian poor

This paper observes the poverty issues examined in Malaysia and proposes the need to study the poor who have broken the poverty chain. Most studies generally focus on only the poor, their reasons for being poor, various poverty alleviation methods and poverty with regard to measurement. However, it will be more insightful if studies are carried out on the poor who have broken the cycle of poverty. Research conducted in several countries on those who have come out of poverty indicate far-reaching implications to all stakeholders. Hence, such studies in Malaysia would give a better understanding of how some of the poor have broken the shackles of poverty and are leading a better life. It would be very valuable to understand the strategies they used in real life situations to overcome the fetters of poverty.     

Poverty and welfare in Denmark

From 1945 to the 1980s, Denmark was characterized by the absence of poverty or at least by the lack of any debate over poverty. However, by the mid-1980s, the presence of new forms of poverty made it impossible for politicians and social scientists to neglect poverty as an issue. The re-emergence of poverty did not clarify its extent, but it is widely agreed that poverty now is related to social exclusion and marginalization from the labour market. Empirical evidence is given that shows a poverty incidence of about 8%; the extent of marginalization is calculated to include 20-25% of the population of working age. The existence of poverty can be seen as a critique of the Scandinavian welfare state project, which was developed explicitly to fight and eliminate poverty. The article concludes with a discussion of the latest welfare state development in Scandinavia and possible future trends, summarized as welfare pluralism. The further implementation of the concept of welfare pluralism holds both positive and negative prospects for the poor, since it opens up both a more differentiated yet possibly also more stratified distribution of welfare     

The prevalence and composition of asset poverty in Canada: 1999, 2005, and 2012

A household is considered asset poor if its assets (financial assets or net worth, taken separately) are insufficient to maintain well‐being at a low‐income threshold for 3 months. We provide the first national‐level estimates of asset poverty for Canada, using the 1999, 2005, and 2012 cycles of the Survey of Financial Security, and juxtapose these estimates with income poverty. The analysis provides new insight into economic insecurity by showing that asset poverty rates are consistently two to three times higher than income poverty rates. In addition to the prevalence of asset poverty across socio‐demographic groups, we analyzed how the composition of the poor change over time. Age and geography shape the risk for asset poverty in distinct ways. We found that while education appears to play a comparable role in shaping both income poverty and asset poverty, immigration places Canadians at a relatively higher risk of income poverty but not asset poverty. Key Practitioner Message: ? Practitioners ought to consider assets as well as income in assessing economic vulnerability; ? Asset poverty levels are 2–3 times higher than income poverty levels; ? Certain groups (e.g., immigrants) may be income poor but maintain sufficient assets.