Disabled households ‘twice as likely to live below poverty line’
A report examining access to the labour market for people with disabilities found the proportion of disabled households living on less than half the average income rose from 10% in 1994 to 60% by 2001.
It found just 26% of people with disabilities in the main working age group (20 to 64) are in work, and the disabled were also two and a half times more likely to be unemployed.
Angela Kerins, chairwoman of the National Disability Authority (NDA), said compared to the rest of Europe, the rate of employment of people with disabilities in Ireland is very low.
In its latest Disability Agenda, released yesterday, the NDA said three factors - the benefits trap, access barriers into mainstream work and education gaps - were excluding the disabled from the labour market.
A benefits trap exists because to qualify for a medical card individuals must have an income (after rent and costs of travel to work) of less than €143 for a single person and €207 for a married couple, while people with disabilities also risk losing mobility allowance, disability aids and free electricity if they take up a job.
In Ireland, the proportion of people with disabilities who were provided with assistance to work is half that for the EU. Since its introduction in 1977, the 3% employment target of people with disabilities in the civil and public sectors has never been met.
Gaps in education and training also exist. Because of their overall lower education attainment (a recent study found just 27% of students with disabilities go beyond Junior Certificate), people with disabilities have lowered earning capacity.
