This document provides guidance on building inclusive social protection systems that enable the participation and inclusion of persons with disabilities. It highlights key considerations for designing and implementing such systems, focusing on the need to address disability-related costs, ensure accessibility, and promote meaningful participation of persons with disabilities. The document serves as a practical resource for policymakers, practitioners, and advocates working to advance disability-inclusive social protection.
Key Insights
Disability-Related Costs
Persons with disabilities face a diversity of disability-related costs that can significantly impact their socio-economic participation. These costs include:
- Direct costs: Additional spending on regular items like healthcare and transportation, and disability-specific spending on assistive devices or human assistance.
- Indirect costs: Lower income due to discrimination and opportunity costs for family members who provide unpaid support.
Factors influencing disability-related costs include individual characteristics (gender, ethnicity, age), the nature and extent of impairment, functional limitations, environmental factors (physical and attitudinal barriers), location (urban or rural), and the level of participation desired by the person. Adequate individual disability and needs assessment is important for providing tailored support.
Key Feature: Accessibility and Non-Discrimination
Social protection systems should allow persons with disabilities to equally access and benefit from social protection programs and social services by removing physical, communicational, informational, institutional, and attitudinal barriers.
Disability-inclusive social protection systems have key features such as ensuring accessibility and non-discrimination, respecting dignity and autonomy, fostering consultation with organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs), and providing both basic income security and coverage of health and disability-related costs.
Building Ownership with OPDs
Disability-inclusive social protection systems should foster consultation with representative organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) on the design, implementation, and monitoring of social protection. This provides a lived experience perspective, and promotes ownership and sustain demand for necessary reforms. It is critical to involve stakeholders to promote appropriate policy.
The Power of Cash Benefits
Cash benefits can replace or supplement income and help offset disability-related costs and cash benefits should be coupled with:
- Concessions and community services, like support services and subsidies, can reduce out-of-pocket expenses.
- Social health protection, which mitigates financial barriers and risk of poverty due to health expenses.
- Also key is disability and needs assessment, case management mechanisms to maximize benefit for people facing various barriers.
Important Recommendation
Countries should seek to progressively introduce a (quasi) universal disability-specific cash benefit which is compatible with work and with other benefits providing income security.
Concessions
Concessions can ease the financial burden of persons with disabilities by reducing or offsetting disability-related costs and out-of-pocket expenditures.
Concessions should be progressive, meaningful, and preferably target the first dollar spent or earned.
Key Statistics & Data
- Globally, only around a third (34 per cent) of persons with severe disabilities receive a disability benefit (ILO, 2021).
- Estimated 15 per cent of the world’s population live with some form of disability, with higher prevalence among older persons, while 2-4 per cent experience significant difficulties.
Implications and Conclusions
This guidance emphasizes the need for a paradigm shift in social protection, moving from narrowly defined income replacement/security to supporting the full and effective participation of persons with disabilities. This requires a holistic approach combining basic income security with interventions aimed at addressing the diversity of disability-related costs and linkages with other sectors to foster full socio-economic participation. Key implications include making all instruments available and using an integrated approach: cash benefits, community services, and social health protection to create comprehensive support. Finally, active and robust partnerships with OPDS and stakeholders in the community can promote adoption and accountability.
Key Points
- Inclusive social protection systems can play a crucial role in addressing gaps and enabling the full participation of persons with disabilities across the lifecycle.
- Disability-related costs encompass direct costs such as additional spending on healthcare and transportation, and indirect costs such as lower income due to discrimination.
- Disability-inclusive social protection systems have key features such as ensuring accessibility and non-discrimination, respecting dignity and autonomy, fostering consultation with organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs), and providing both basic income security and coverage of health and disability-related costs.
- Cash benefits can replace or supplement income and help offset disability-related costs while concessions and community services reduce out-of-pocket expenses and social health protection mitigates financial barriers and risk of poverty due to health expenses.
- Countries should seek to progressively introduce a (quasi) universal disability-specific cash benefit which are compatible with work and with other benefits providing income security.
- Concessions should be progressive, meaningful, and preferably target the first dollar spent or earned.
- Building inclusive social protection systems for participation of persons with disabilities requires making the most all instruments available.