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Social protection for people with disabilities: Cash benefits are not enough

Published in November 2023

Social protection for people with disabilities: Cash benefits are not enough

Only one third of persons with severe disability around the world receives a disability-related benefit. Often the design of these benefits is not aligned with international standards.

Social protection policies in many countries perpetuate the misconception that disability is associated with “incapacity to work” and “poverty”. The emphasis is on the need to “compensate” for an assumed lack of ability to work. 

Social protection for people with disabilities: Cash benefits are not enough

The truth is that people with disabilities could be effectively included in societies if they were supported by well-designed social protection systems that empower them and promote their participation in all areas of social life.  

Explore this InfoStory to learn how countries can take action to create more inclusive social protection policies that work towards the full and effective participation of people with disability. 

This InfoStory draws on materials created by the Center for Inclusive Policy in the context of a project financed by the UN Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Protection of persons with disabilities around the world

Globally, only 33.5% of persons with severe disabilities receive cash benefits, but this number varies widely according to regions and countries.  

Coverage in Central Asia is above 80% and in Europe it is quasi-universal. However, in Africa and the Arab States it is below 10%. 

While universal provision for people with disabilities is more common in higher-income countries, it has also been achieved in Brazil or Mongolia. 

Why persons with disabilities often start from an unequal position

Imagine that, to achieve a similar standard of living and level of participation in society as others, you and your family had to spend more money throughout your lives. This is what you face if you live with a disability. 

Such extra expenses can include the cost of private transport if public transport is not accessible, higher costs for food if a specific diet is necessary, or the costs of a wheel chair or a hearing aid.  

At the same time, you earn less due to barriers to education and job markets. Your family members might have to stop working to provide support, which decreases household income.

These expenses and lower earnings are called disability extra costs.

In fact, as a person with disabilities, you face much higher costs of living, which puts you in an unequal and unfair position vis-à-vis persons without disabilities. 

Well-designed social protection schemes can help address many of those extra costs and support inclusion of persons with disabilities. Sadly, few countries provide such support, and when they do, the benefits are often too low, and they do not consider the diversity of disability costs. 

What is more, existing social protection schemes are often limited to the people who are considered in poverty. They exclude many persons with disabilities who are not eligible, but still cannot afford the support they need. 

Social protection can break down these inequalities

Social protection systems can tackle this problem by comprehensively covering the extra costs that arise from a disability. The goal should be to make mainstream services and benefits accessible to all, as well as developing disability-specific schemes. 

Cash alone is not sufficient. Like everyone else, people with disabilities have different needs at various stages of life. These changing needs must be met by different services and institutions.

To give three examples, social protection systems can play a key role in facilitating access to early childhood education and schools, to rehabilitation and to economic empowerment programs such as job coaching and counselling. 

Access to social protection must be easy for all

Even when social protection systems are inclusive on paper, they may not be so in practice if they are not easily accessible for people with disabilities across every step of the delivery chain.  

Am I eligible? Under which conditions? How do I apply? What documents do I need? How can I receive the benefit?  

These questions are often not easy for people with disabilities to answer, and in the process other barriers surface. As persons with disabilities are a diverse group, they face different barriers related to the built environment, transport, information and communication. 

Those who are working also require social protection

When people with disabilities are employed, the disability extra costs they face can become even higher given specific needs they may have for commuting, performing their work, and so forth. For the effective inclusion of working-age populations, it is crucial to design social protection benefits in ways that make them compatible with work. 

Nonetheless, most social protection schemes still require proof of at least partial incapacity to work from persons with disabilities as a precondition to qualify for a benefit. In practice, this can compel persons with disabilities to choose between either receiving disability support benefits or entering the labour market and having to assume all the costs themselves. 

Segregating people with disabilities into those who are “able” or “unable” to work, and making disability benefits conditional upon the incapacity to work, locks them in a vicious cycle of dependency and exclusion, thereby perpetuating existing stereotypes and prejudices. 

Nothing about us without us

Persons with disabilities and the organizations that represent them are often consulted in policy discussions, but they tend to be excluded from other key processes such as implementation, monitoring and reform of social protection policies and programmes.  

People with disabilities should not be just a box to tick at the consultation phase. If we want truly inclusive social protection schemes, people with disabilities must have an active role in all phases of the policy cycle. 

Find out more about disability inclusion through social protection.

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How to address extra costs?

Because disability extra costs are so varied and dependent on a person’s specific situation, different instruments need to be used in combination, including for example:  

Universal healthcare

Persons with disabilities often have greater healthcare needs, face high health-related expenses and struggle with many barriers to access health services.

By providing everyone with needed health services without financially straining them, universal healthcare can help reduce the inequalities that people with disabilities face.  

Universal disability support allowance

A universal disability support allowance can provide flexible support to cover basic disability costs. To be effective, the allowance should be granted even if a person is working or receives a child benefit .

Support in addition to the allowance may be required for specific individuals who face extremely high expenses, for instance third-person support allowance (e.g. a sign language interpreter), a caregiver allowance (e.g. for parents of children with disabilities or for persons who need permanent attendance), or the direct provision of personal assistance services. 

Concessions and discounts

Concessions and discounts are another tool that many governments have put in place.  Examples include free public transport and discounts on goods and services regularly consumed regardless of disability, such as utilities.

While these concessions may not be directly related to costs relating to a disability, they can compensate for those that are. 

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The barriers that impede access to social protection

Physical barriers

A range of physical obstacles can make access difficult for persons with disabilities. These may include difficult terrain, lack of service points in communities, long travel distances to reach enrolment or payment centres, poor or non-existent transport and lack of adequate facilities (entrances, toilets) for persons with disabilities. 

Information and communication barriers

General information, forms and websites are often not available in accessible formats for variety of disabilities. In addition, information and procedures are often too complex for some persons with disabilities, some of whom may be illiterate. 

Attitudes

Further barriers encountered are discriminatory practices, lack of staff engagement and lack of inclusion requirements for persons with disabilities. 

Legal and design barriers

The ways disability social protection schemes are designed can sometimes become barriers for certain disabilities. For instance, if a scheme is means-tested, there is a risk of exclusion, especially if means tests do not take into account disability extra costs.

Additionally, if the scheme is not compatible with other social protection schemes, such as an old-age pensions, it may provide an inadequate level of protection, considering that older persons with disabilities have higher needs than others.  

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How to identify persons with disabilities

Disability identification and assessment is another area where there is much room for progress. Identification and assessment should be affordable, easily available nationwide, and focus not only on functional impairment or medical assessment, but also on the diverse barriers that people with disabilities face and their support needs.  

For example, it is preferable to use the Washington Group Short Set of Questions, which measures difficulties in daily living, in combination with medical certification.  

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