People with disabilities and income-related social protection measures in South Africa: Where is the gap?

African Journal of Disability

 
 
Field Value
 
Title People with disabilities and income-related social protection measures in South Africa: Where is the gap?
 
Creator Hanass-Hancock, Jill McKenzie, Tamlyn C.
 
Subject economics disability; economic vulnerability; poverty; social protection; Africa
Description Background: People with disabilities are at increased risk of poverty, particularly in low-and middle-income countries. However, recent evidence suggests that this association is more nuanced than previously anticipated and that we need better data to understand the opportunity and out-of-pocket costs that diverse groups of people with disabilities may experience.Objective: This paper discusses if disability is associated with opportunity cost and loss of income both on the individual and household level in South Africa, and if these costs differ depending on disability type and severity.Methods: For this purpose, the paper analyses General Household Survey 2011 data (people between 15 and 59) using descriptive statistics disaggregated via disability type and severity. The paper also assesses if social grants counteract these costs and reduce economic vulnerability.Results: The analysis of the data reveals that people with disabilities are affected by issues relating to multidimensional poverty such as lower educational attainment and fewer employment opportunities. In addition, households of people with disabilities (with the exception of milder visual problems) earn significantly less than households without people with disabilities, and this particularly applies to households with people with severe disabilities. This vulnerability also varies by disability type. The country’s social protection mechanisms, in terms of social grants, counteract economic vulnerability to some extent but do not consider the nuanced economic impact of diverse conditions nor the increased out-of-pocket costs related to disability.Conclusions: This calls for more equitable social protection mechanisms that include accessible services, livelihood programmes and disability benefits.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor not applicable
Date 2017-09-26
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — data analysis of GHS data (cross-sectional survey)
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ajod.v6i0.300
 
Source African Journal of Disability; Vol 6 (2017); 11 pages 2226-7220 2223-9170
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/300/700 https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/300/699 https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/300/701 https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/300/693
 
Coverage South Africa 2001-2015 all as represented in GHS
Rights Copyright (c) 2017 Jill Hanass-Hancock, Tamlyn C. McKenzie https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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