Disabled households ‘twice as likely to live below poverty line’

HOUSEHOLDS where the head is out of work due to disability are almost twice as likely to live below the 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.