Adjusting Estimates of Poverty for the Cost of Disability

13 бер. 2025

This study explores the economic impact of disability on households. It is authored by Prof Karina Doorley, Dr Theano Kakoulidou and Dr Agathe Simon of the ESRI. Some of the key findings include:

• Using a Standard of Living Deprivation indicator, the study finds that households with a disabled member have a lower standard of living than those without. In income terms, this means that the cost of disability is between 52%-59% of disposable income for disabled households. The study determines that the average weekly household disposable income for disabled households is €944, meaning disability costs between €488-€555 per week, on average.
• The cost of disability is strongly related to the severity of disability, ranging from 41%-46% (€384-€434) of disposable income for those with some limitation to 83%-93% (€786-€875) for those with severe limitations.
• The study finds that the at risk of poverty (AROP) rate is substantially higher for disabled people, sitting at 24%, compared to 10% for non-disabled people, when measured in the usual way. However, when the average estimated cost of disability is deducted from the disposable income of people living in households affected by disability, their AROP rate increases to between 65%-76%.
• Deducting the cost of disability also increases the intensity of poverty for disabled people, as measured by the poverty gap, raising from it from 4% to 22-28%. This illustrates that the impact of the cost of disability can be seen across multiple metrics.

This  is the second report in 2022-2024 IHREC/ESRI Research programme, and marks the twelfth published report since 2017 under the IHREC/ESRI Irish Human Rights and Equality Research Programme Series. These research reports examine equality and discrimination in Ireland across a wide range of themes and topics including inequality in the labour market, disability, caring and unpaid work, inequality in housing and attitudinal research towards diversity and migration in Ireland. These detailed studies continue to provide us with a better understanding of equality and discrimination in Ireland, expanding the boundaries of existing knowledge and guiding us towards new horizons of insight Download Adjusting Estimates of Poverty for the Cost of Disability accessible word