European Economic
and Social Committee
According to a report on poverty in Spain published by the European Anti-Poverty Network in Spain (EAPN-ES), people with disabilities continue to face a significantly higher risk of poverty and social exclusion than those without disabilities. The culprit is not disability itself, but an ableist system that fails to provide adequate support to those who need it. EESC Info spoke to report co-author Alejandro Sanz Angulo about its main findings, the additional costs of living with a disability and why jobs and benefits still fail to protect so many people from poverty.
Your report State of Poverty 2026 notes that almost one in three people with disabilities in Spain are at risk of poverty or social exclusion - nearly ten percentage points higher than among people without disabilities. Why does this gap persist?
Poverty among people with disabilities is a rights issue. It arises when the system fails to provide the support people need to live independently and on an equal footing. In an ableist system, where equality policies do not do enough to correct structural inequalities, disability remains a risk factor for poverty and social exclusion. This is because the system is designed for people without disabilities, resulting in additional costs for those with disabilities that are not adequately offset. It also fails to guarantee sufficient support or universal accessibility and maintains barriers in employment, housing, care and public services. In other words, it is a system that leaves a significant part of the population behind.
Your report warns that poverty figures do not reflect the additional costs of living with a disability. What does this mean for measuring poverty and determining who needs support? Are there estimates of how much more people with disabilities have to spend to achieve the same standard of living as people without disabilities?
Poverty is measured using the at-risk-of-poverty rate, which forms part of the AROPE indicator. This rate is calculated using household income data and therefore takes account of income alone, not expenditure. This method of measuring poverty fails to adequately consider the specific spending needs of each social group, including people with disabilities. These needs are not always effectively covered by public systems. Based on data from the National Statistics Institute’s EDAD survey, COCENFE estimates that people with disabilities face average additional expenditure of almost EUR 2 100 a year, mainly for medicines, treatments and assistive products. Other organisations, such as Fundación ONCE through its Odismet observatory, have also confirmed these additional costs.
Having a job offers protection against poverty, yet almost a quarter of working people with disabilities are still at risk of poverty or social exclusion. Why is employment failing to lift so many people out of this situation?
Among people with disabilities, higher levels of inactivity are compounded by the poorer quality of the jobs available to them. Employment plays an important protective role for people with disabilities; however, they face far lower rates of labour market participation than the rest of the population, particularly those with intellectual disabilities. In addition, the types of jobs they are able to obtain and their higher rate of part-time work put them at a disadvantage in terms of pay.
For all these reasons, EAPN-ES is calling for labour inspection to be strengthened so that direct discrimination on various grounds, including limited resources and disability, can be monitored and penalised.
Your report shows that the average non-contributory disability pension is even below the severe poverty threshold. What should change to ensure that people who depend on these benefits can meet their basic needs?
Non-contributory disability pensions guarantee a basic income and, although their value has increased in recent years, they are clearly still insufficient. The solution lies in improving two aspects of both non-contributory pensions and other social protection benefits: they need to be broader and more substantial. In other words, they need to reach more people and have a greater impact, with payments high enough to ensure that people with disabilities can meet their basic needs.
What should the EU’s first Anti-Poverty Strategy prioritise to tackle poverty among people with disabilities?
For EAPN-ES, the priorities for tackling poverty among people with disabilities do not differ greatly from its proposals for the population as a whole. EAPN-ES sees the strategy’s most significant shortcomings as the absence of a clear roadmap towards eradicating poverty and social exclusion, and its insufficient attention to their causes.
Furthermore, the strategy does not address the limitations of current social protection systems, a fundamental pillar of any policy to combat poverty and promote social inclusion. The gap between the Commission’s stated objectives and its political priorities is particularly concerning, as shown by the persistent underfunding of policies that safeguard social rights, compared with growing investment in defence and security.
Alejandro Sanz Angulo holds a degree in sociology and has more than 15 years of experience in social research. He works in the Research and Advocacy department of the European Anti-Poverty Network in Spain (EAPN Spain), where, among other studies, he leads the production of the annual State of Poverty report, the Observatory on Poverty, Inequality and Exclusion, and oFpex (the Observatory on the Feminisation of Poverty).