A UK news report has revealed that about half of disabled people in the country live in poverty.
I find that statistic sad but not surprising. Disabled people have more trouble finding work. Even when they do find a job, they will have trouble finding one that pays enough. Additionally, disabled people have a large amount of extra expenses for medical bills, social care, and equipment such as wheelchairs or hearing aids.
The problem of disabled people’s poverty may seem tough to fix because many disabled people physically cannot take care of themselves and their expenses. If they cannot work, they cannot earn an income to support themselves. As a result, it may seem like only charity can keep disabled people out of poverty.
Charity can help, but we can solve the problem without relying on charity. We can stop disabled from falling into poverty by ensuring that all people have enough insurance to cover all the problems involved. This includes unemployment insurance, medical insurance, and secured retirement.
Insurance makes it so that all the clients voluntarily pool their money together. When any of the clients meets hardship (in this case becoming disabled), the insurance company takes care of that person. People voluntarily choose to pay a little money they can afford to eliminate the risk of having to more money than they can afford.
By using insurance to neutralize risk, society can end disabled people’s poverty without charity in a non-governmental way.
What do you think? Discuss this blog post and disabled people’s poverty in general in this thread at the World Hunger and Poverty Forums.