The plan drastically reduces poverty among people with disabilities, proving progress under our current system is possible

While America provides some income support to its citizens with disabilities through Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), these programs inevitably leave many out. Today, 22% of households with people with disabilities do not receive any federal government assistance. Further, just 14% of households of families where someone is disabled collected SSI, a program “designed to help aged, blind, and , who have little or no income.” Unemployment insurance was the only program in our analysis that was more likely to go to families without people with disabilities. Universal payments would ensure that all households receive government assistance. The remainder of this paper examines how universal payments can alleviate poverty for Americans with disabilities.

Background

To conduct this analysis, we used the most recent Current Population Survey March Supplement, which reflects 2018 income. Using this data, we simulated how various UBI levels impact the poverty rate of Americans with a variety of disabilities. For reference, the chart below shows the amount of Americans identifying with each type of disability.

Findings

We found that a UBI has the potential to drastically reduce poverty among adults with disabilities and that a $300 monthly UBI would cut the poverty rate in half, from 20.7 percent to 9.2 percent. A UBI of $1,000 per month, such as in , would shrink the poverty rate among people with disabilities to 1.3 percent.

With the status quo, poverty rates are highest among people with cognitive, physical, and self-care disabilities, which all exceed 24 percent. A UBI of $500 per month would slash all these rates below 7 percent, a third of their current level.

The interactive chart below shows the poverty rate for each group with various monthly UBI levels up to $1,000 at $100 intervals.

UBI is the simple solution to save the lives of people with disabilities who are reliant on benefits for survival—this redistribution is enough Julie Farrel 20 (Farrell is a writer and accessibility consultant. Her writing, which focuses on disability, mental health, and equality, has won several awards. She Co-Founded Inklusion, a disability access guide, and now serves as a member of the UK Disability Network and a trustee for Mslexia Magazine,) “Dying from Inequality - Why Universal Basic Income is the Solution”, Disability Arts Online, , June 22, 2020/CR ‘People living in the poorest, most disadvantaged communities face the highest risk of dying by suicide’, the Samaritans cited in their 2017 report, Dying from Inequality. They found that ‘financial instability and poverty can increase suicide risk.’ And that ‘Suicide is a major inequality issue.’ It comes as no surprise that unmanageable debt, unemployment, poor housing conditions, and other socioeconomic factors all contribute to high suicide rates. ‘Tackling inequality should be central to suicide prevention’ reads the report summary.

So how do we do that? In a world of systemic inequality, where poverty and homelessness have never been eradicated, the welfare state has become increasingly punitive – and workers are still punished for sickness – is equality even possible? In a world where the UK has seen suicide rates increase by 10.9% in the last year alone. Where thousands of low-skilled, but equally – if not more so – valuable workers are struggling to make ends meet, thanks to low wages and flimsy worker protections. The report addresses the factors which lead to poverty on a societal, community and individual level; with much emphasis placed on “weak social protection (especially inadequate employment benefits); poor (or non-existent) active labour market programmes; weak (or non-existent) employment protection; austerity measures; cuts in mental healthcare spending”.

Disabled people who find themselves reliant on government support to live have seen a drastic decrease in access to this support, and if they do receive it, bureaucratic processes cause months of delays, reduced payments and expedient recoup of payments with little to no warning. Just this year, Errol Graham died from starvation after his benefits were cut – his body was found by bailiff’s coming to evict him.

His needs were not understood nor adequately supported, Assistant Coroner Dr Elizabeth Didcock said: “The sudden loss of all income, and the threat of eviction that followed from it, will have caused huge distress and worry, and significant financial hardship… Likely, this loss of income, and housing, were the final and devastating stressors, that had a significant effect on his mental health… The safety net that should surround vulnerable people like Errol in our society has holes in it.”

Tougher ‘fit to work’ assessments have now been linked to 590 additional suicides by the University of Liverpool. An average of 9,700 deaths are caused every year by living in a cold house, as Errol Graham did. Homeless deaths have been steadily rising over the last couple of decades as have deaths from malnourishment.

The causes are intersectional. Living with chronic illness might make it harder for someone to work enough hours to pay the bills, but the government may deem them as ‘fit to work’ – with a huge impact on their mental health when they don’t receive support from the state. Older people may find their pensions aren’t sufficient to afford the cost of additional fuel to heat their homes through the winter. Disturbingly, 22% of the UK population are now living in poverty – 34% are children. The Trussell Trust is the largest food bank network in the UK – it handed out around 41,000 food packs in 2010 compared to 1.2 million in 2017. One in three premature deaths in the UK is attributable to socioeconomic inequality.

There is one simple solution or at least a very good attempt at the beginnings of it – pay every individual a basic living wage. No matter what their situation. Lift the poor out of poverty. It’s not difficult to understand. It’s much cheaper to do this than to continue with the welfare state we currently have. No more bureaucracy, or administrative costs, or untrained and non-specialist staff assessing the medical needs of applicants.

Close the gap which thousands of people are falling through.

We can learn from Denmark, where income disparity is considerably less, and the State pays two years UBI to any person who finds themselves unemployed, sick or wishing to re-train or up-skill.

It’s almost impossible to believe that in a progressive world, inequality still exists. More than that, is perpetuated by our governments not doing enough to eliminate it. A couple of years ago, at an event about UBI at Edinburgh International Book Festival, I listened to a discussion on the subject between a progressive policy think-tank director and two economists. The economists offered solid economic data from pilot studies (one rolled out in Scotland) as well as projected statistics, supporting the UBI model.

The think-tank director, in a manner straight out of a Tory politician’s handbook, kept asking, ‘where’s the money coming from? Are you going to pay more tax?’ When the economists had made it clear such a measure would be very achievable, he resorted the age-old, and damaging rhetoric, “Imagine it: 30% of the population depend on UBI. Maybe they’re students. They’ve left Uni and they’ve decided to sit and read books or watch daytime TV. It creates dependency at the lowest level of skill which is a huge political risk. It’s euthanizing those on lowest income.”