Variations in Poverty by Family Characteristics Among Working‐Age Adults With Disabilities

Abstract

Objective To examine the association of family structure, family‐level employment, and receipt of adult public disability benefits on poverty levels among working‐age persons with disabilities in the United States. Background Working‐age persons with disabilities are more likely than their counterparts without disabilities to live in poverty. However, prior research has not fully examined differences in poverty that control for family structure, family‐level employment, receipt of adult public disability benefits, and other family‐level characteristics. Method Couched within a conceptual model of family resilience, data from the 2016 Current Population Survey (N = 110,865) were used to estimate binary logistic regression models predicting the likelihood of living in poverty, controlling for family structure, family‐level employment, receipt of adult public disability benefits, and other family‐level characteristics. Results Married or cohabiting households that include an adult with a disability had equal odds of living in poverty as married or cohabiting households without an adult with a disability. However, in single‐adult households, the risk of living in poverty was higher among those households where the adult had a disability than among those who did not. Employment and receipt of public disability benefits moderated the risk of living in poverty for persons with disabilities, particularly for single‐headed households. Conclusion Family structure, family‐level employment, and receipt of public disability benefits are associated with the risk of living in poverty among adults with disabilities in the United States. In short, the public disability benefit system in the United States can reduce but not totally alleviate the risks of poverty for working‐age adults with disabilities. Implications Continued investment into furthering the employment of adults with disabilities, while protecting the availability of public disability benefits can reduce the risks of poverty for Americans with disabilities.

The Extra Costs Associated With Living With a Disability in the United States

“…This lower estimate for married adults, consistent with prior research (Morris & Zaidi, 2020), may be due to greater household economies of scale as well as the ability to obtain informal care in a partnership that decreases the need to purchase caregiving services. This is also supported by a recent study by Brucker (2020), which found marriage is a protective factor for poverty when at least one adult in the household has a disability. We also found a slightly higher estimate of the costs of disability (37%) when defining disability as the reporting of one or more of six daily living limitations.…”

Assessing poverty and livelihood vulnerability of the fishing communities in the context of pollution of the Churni River, India

“…The responsible factors they found are household size, general education, total land possession, etc. Brucker (2020) observed the households having adult disability and single adult people are at high risk of poverty.…”