Standard of living

Equality regarding standard of living: main results
	Persons with severe disabilities	Persons with disabilities (total)	Persons without disabilities
Own financial situation (average satisfaction) ¹	4.9	6.5	7.3
Disability benefits (%) ²	34.4	15.2	1.2
Risk of poverty (%)³	26.2	16.1	10.5

Population aged 16 to 64 years living in a private household.
1 SILC 2021. Average score on a scale of 0 (-) to 10 (+).
2 SILC 2021. Persons receiving at least one type of benefit (pension, allowance, other).
3 SILC 2020. Persons living in a household at risk of poverty (less than 60% of median disposable income). Source: FSO – Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC)

Relevance to equality

People with disabilities should have an adequate standard of living for themselves and their family. This includes being able to access benefits from the social state and protection from poverty. A disability can cause financial difficulties by reducing one’s earning capacity (income from employment) or by engendering particular costs.

This section deals with the financial situation and resources of people with disabilities from the aspect of the overall financial situation, the financial resources that people with disabilities receive from the social protection system and their exposure to poverty.

Definitions/explanations

Three factors influence the financial situation of people with disabilities:

• their personal income

• the income of the people they live with.
The incomes of members of the same household are most often pooled. A person’s standard of living cannot be deduced from their income alone, unless they live on their own and without support from their family.

• expenditure related to the disability (medical care, special equipment, personal assistance, etc.).
Dependent people are faced with significant financial outlay, especially if they live in an institution. This expenditure is generally covered by the social protection system or by private organisations, but not always in its entirety.

Statistical sources and concepts

Surveys

Definitions

The results on this page refer to persons with disabilities as under the Disability Discrimination Act (unless otherwise stated). The precise definition and the difference between other definitions of disability are shown in the persons with disabilities factsheet below.