EDF dedicated its 2020 Human Rights Report to the issue of poverty and social exclusion faced by persons with disabilities. The report was based on EU-level data from 2018, which was the most recent data available at the time.
Poverty and social exclusion were already major issues for persons with disabilities in Europe at the time. These issues were magnified by the deadly global pandemic and the full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine by Russia. Besides the devastating impact these have had on the lives of countless people, they also brought about steep inflation and a cost-of-living crisis.
Poverty rates stable since 2018 – but gap remains
Eurostat’s new Disability Database allows us to compare the poverty rates from 2023 and 2018.
Surprisingly, the average rate of persons with disabilities in the EU at risk of poverty and social exclusion has not risen, despite the socio-economic challenges Europe is facing.
The rate of persons with disabilities at risk of poverty fell very slightly from 29.3% to 28.8%.
28.8% of persons with disabilities in the EU being at risk of poverty is still a startling statistic and underlines just how much more difficult it is for persons with disabilities to make ends meet.
A wide gap remains: 18% of persons without disabilities are at risk of poverty – still a 10 percentage points gap between persons with and without disabilities.
Improvements in some countries
Some of the Member States that we highlighted in our 2020 report as having particularly high poverty rates for persons with disabilities have made considerable progress.
Bulgaria and Romania both managed to reduce poverty rates considerably:
- Bulgaria’s poverty rate for persons with disabilities fell from 50.1% to 42.2%.
- In Romania, it fell from 46.5% to 39.4%.
The Baltic Member States, which also have high rates of poverty and social exclusion, presented considerable – if more modest – progress:
- In Lithuania, the rates fell from 45.2% to 42.7%.
- In Latvia, they fell from 44.4% to 38.5%.
In 2018, Ireland stood out as having a particularly high risk of poverty and social exclusion for persons with disabilities. It has dropped from 38.2% to 32.7%.
Thirteen countries get worse
Thirteen EU Member States have seen increases in the risk of poverty and social exclusion among persons with disabilities. These Member States are Denmark, Greece, France, Croatia, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia and Sweden.
In some cases, the increase has been quite noticeable:
- In France, the poverty rate rose from 21.9% to 27%.
- In Croatia, it rose from 33.4% to 37.5%.
- In Hungary, the rise was from 28.8% to 32.4%.
- In the Netherlands, it rose from 22.5% to 25.5%.
Housing and food strain budgets
The rise in the cost of housing has been putting increased strain on the budgets of persons with disabilities. The current housing crisis is compounded by the lack of affordable and accessible housing. Housing expenses accounted for 30.2% of disposable income in 2023, compared to 27.4% in 2018.
The cost of food also poses a considerable burden, especially due to inflation. 13.8% of persons with disabilities in the EU are unable to afford a meal with meat, chicken, fish (or vegetarian equivalent) every second day (from 11.9% in 2018).
Recommendations
We urge the European Commission to address this issue through strong and ambitious actions planned as a continuation of its EU Strategy on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. As a priority, the Commission should:
- Establish a Disability Employment and Skills Guarantee
- Conduct a detailed study into the extra cost of living for persons with disabilities: the study should take into account the extra cost of living faced by persons with different kinds of disabilities, as well as how it varies in different parts of the EU.
- Prioritising funding of accessible and affordable housing using EU Regional Development Funds (ERDF): When the EU funding regulations are revised for the funding period 2028-2034, supporting the provision of affordable and accessible housing must become a priority.
- Push Member States to allow people to retain disability allowance when working.
- Introduce EU legislation on the availability and affordability of Assistive Technologies: We demand strong legislative measures to ensure a market that guarantees the wide availability of affordable assistive technologies and that persons with disabilities residing in the EU have the same access to the most suitable assistive technologies.