Disability and Disadvantage Report
Many people live with a disability that prevents them from performing day to day activities. Such disabilities include physical, intellectual, psychiatric or sensory disabilities and may be the result of accident, illness or genetic disorder. For some, their disability affects their independence. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, just over 6% of Australians have a profound
or severe limitation in basic activities such as self care, moving around or communicating.
Although poverty and disability have both been subject to extensive research relatively few Australian studies have examined the relationship between the two. Research by the Social Policy Research Centre found that where there is someone in a household with a disability, poverty rates are higher and hardship is more prevalent.
In income terms the cost of disability is estimated to average around 29% of household income after taking into account the size of the household, rising to between 40 and 49% of income for those with a severe form of disability.3 Yet the economic impact of disability is only one dimension of the overall experience of disadvantage, as will be discussed in this publication.
This publication reports on findings from new research (the Left Out and Missing Out: Towards new indicators of disadvantage project) undertaken through a partnership between the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, three community service organisations, namely ANGLICARE (Sydney), Mission Australia and the Brotherhood of St Laurence, as well as the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), the peak community sector organisation.
This publication focuses on people who are both:
- clients of the community organisations undertaking the study, and
- people with a disability or ongoing medical condition which restricts their daily activities.
