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Material Hardship, Poverty, and Disability among Working-Age Adults

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dc.contributor.authorShe, Peiyun
dc.contributor.authorLivermore, Gina A.
dc.date.accessioned2020-12-06T23:09:43Z
dc.date.available2020-12-06T23:09:43Z
dc.date.issued2006-04-01
dc.description.abstractWe use longitudinal data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) spanning the 1996 to 1999 period to estimate the prevalence of several types of material hardships among working-age people with and without disabilities. The hardships studied relate to: the ability to meet expenses; ability to pay rent or mortgage and utility bills; ability to obtain needed medical and dental care; and food security. Several alternative measures of disability are used, including distinctions between short and long-term disability. We find that, regardless of the disability measure used, people with disabilities experience various kinds of material hardship at substantially higher rates than their counterparts without disabilities. Hardship experiences did not differ dramatically between those with short and long-term disabilities. We estimate logit models of the likelihood of reporting material hardships to assess the importance of disability after controlling for income and other sociodemographic characteristics. We find that disability is an important determinant of material hardship even after controlling for these factors. All else constant, the odds of reporting hardship are 70 to 280 percent greater among people with disabilities compared with people without disabilities, depending on the measure of disability and the specific hardship considered. To illustrate the differences between those with and without disabilities from another perspective, we use the logit estimates to calculate the household income individuals with disabilities would need to attain the same likelihood of reporting a given material hardship as those without disabilities with household income at the official poverty level. We find that people with disabilities living alone would need annual incomes on the order of $18,000 to $38,000 to experience the same level of hardship, on average, as those without disabilities with incomes at the poverty level (about $10,000), depending on the nature of the disability and the hardship considered. We also estimate disability prevalence among working-age people with incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level and reporting hardships. A large majority of the low-income respondents reporting a material hardship in 1998 also reported a disability of some sort between 1996 and 1999. Among the hardships studied, people with disabilities made up the largest shares of those not getting needed medical care (64 percent) and those reporting food insecurity with hunger (72 percent). The findings suggest that comparisons of conventional poverty rates for people with and without disabilities may understate the differences in the relative economic well-being of these two populations. At a given level of income, people with disabilities will not, on average, achieve the same level of material well-being as those without disabilities. The findings provide support for policies that account for disability-related expenditures and needs when determining eligibility for means-tested assistance programs. The findings also highlight an important limitation of the official poverty measure; it overstates the economic relative well-being of a group that represents a large share of the low-income population, people with disabilities.
dc.description.legacydownloadsDE94B_pdf2.pdf: 1501 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020.
dc.description.legacydownloads0-DE94B_htm1.htm: 139 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020.
dc.identifier.other186353
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1813/89960
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.subjectbenefits
dc.subjectCategories
dc.subjectdependence
dc.subjectdevelopmental disabled
dc.subjectdisabilities
dc.subjectdisability
dc.subjectdisability
dc.subjectDisability Employment Research
dc.subjectEDIcat4-DER
dc.subjectdisability policy
dc.subjectDisability Programs
dc.subjectdisable
dc.subjectdisabled
dc.subjectdisablement
dc.subjectdisabling
dc.subjectearnings
dc.subjecteconomic
dc.subjecteconomics
dc.subjecteconomy
dc.subjectemploy
dc.subjectemploying
dc.subjectemployment
dc.subjectexclusion
dc.subjectfederal government
dc.subjectFederal Insurance Contributions Act
dc.subjectFICA
dc.subjectGuiding Principles
dc.subjecthandicap
dc.subjecthandicap
dc.subjecthandicapped
dc.subjectimpair
dc.subjectimpaired
dc.subjectimpairment
dc.subjectinclude
dc.subjectincluded
dc.subjectinclusion
dc.subjectincome
dc.subjectInsurance
dc.subjectKeywords
dc.subjectLabor Market
dc.subjectlack of income
dc.subjectlearning disability
dc.subjectlimitation
dc.subjectlimitation
dc.subjectlong term disability
dc.subjectmaternity leave
dc.subjectmental handicap
dc.subjectmental retardation
dc.subjectMiscellanies
dc.subjectneed
dc.subjectOASDI
dc.subjectOld Age
dc.subjectSurvivors and Disability
dc.subjectOld Age
dc.subjectSurvivors
dc.subjectand Disability Insurance
dc.subjectparticipation
dc.subjectpaternity leave
dc.subjectphysical disability
dc.subjectpolicies
dc.subjectpolicy
dc.subjectpoor
dc.subjectpoverty
dc.subjectprocedures
dc.subjectpublic policy
dc.subjectpublic programs
dc.subjectregulation
dc.subjectretirement
dc.subjectrules
dc.subjectself-employment
dc.subjectshort term disability
dc.subjectSocial Security
dc.subjectSocial Security Disability Insurance
dc.subjectspecial need
dc.subjectSSDI
dc.subjectSSI
dc.subjectstatute
dc.subjectSupplemental Security Income
dc.subjectwelfare
dc.subjectwork
dc.titleMaterial Hardship, Poverty, and Disability among Working-Age Adults
dc.typearticle
local.authorAffiliationShe, Peiyun: ps74@cornell.edu Cornell University Institute for Policy Research
local.authorAffiliationLivermore, Gina A.: gal23@cornell.edu Cornell University

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K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability Collection
ILR Working Papers