It is shameful that disabled people continue to be at such a huge risk of living in poverty, according to Social Democrats Spokesperson for Disability Liam Quaide. <\/p>\n
\u201cNew research from the ESRI has today painted a stark picture of the huge financial pressures faced by disabled people. <\/p>\n
\u201cNot only are they at a greatly increased risk of living in poverty, the cost of their disability can be as much as 93 per cent of their disposable income. <\/p>\n
\u201cA previous study, published in 2021, had estimated the additional cost of having a disability at between \u20ac9,482 and \u20ac11,734. However, the ESRI has now put those figures at between \u20ac25,000 – \u20ac29,000. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis study while shocking, should not be surprising. It has long been known that disabled people face huge additional, and unavoidable, costs by virtue of having a disability. This is the reason disabled people are at much greater risk of living in poverty. <\/p>\n
\u201cDespite this, successive governments have done almost nothing to reduce these additional costs. For a start, state services \u2013 like therapies and accessible transport \u2013 are virtually non-existent. <\/p>\n
\u201cIreland also ranks lowest in the EU for the number of disabled people in employment, with an employment rate of just 32.6 per cent \u2013 compared to an EU average of 51.3 per cent. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe last government\u2019s response to this issue was to publish a green paper, which sought to medically assess disabled people\u2019s ability to work \u2013 a proposal which was rapidly withdrawn in the face of huge public protest. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe previous government also paid mere lip service to the enormous additional financial costs borne by disabled people, by providing a temporary one-off cost of disability payment \u2013 an insulting and tokenistic measure given disabilities are not temporary. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe now have report after report telling us that disabled people face huge additional costs and are much more likely to be at risk of poverty. Yet, there has been inaction from government when it comes to addressing this issue. <\/p>\n
\u201cDisabled people need a weekly cost-of-disability payment, to try to offset some of the enormous extra costs they face. They also need the State to ensure that essential services are both available and accessible.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question for this government is, how much longer are they going to wait to take meaningful action?\u201d<\/p>\n
13 March, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is shameful that disabled people continue to be at such a huge risk of living in poverty, according to Social Democrats Spokesperson for Disability Liam Quaide. \u201cNew research from the ESRI has today painted a stark picture of the huge financial pressures faced by disabled people. \u201cNot only are they at a greatly increased […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[499,652,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disability","category-liam-quaide","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n