Aligning Employment Promotion with Poverty Prevention

Improvements in labor market outcomes for persons with disabilities lag far behind aspirations, failing to address high poverty risks. Social protection and employment policies play a key role in breaking the link between disability and poverty. These policies, however, need to be carefully designed to promote sustainable employment for persons with disabilities and avoid creating poverty traps. This chapter argues that social protection and employment policies for persons with disabilities should be approached through systematic disability mainstreaming, meaning treating persons with disabilities within the mainstream systems and services provided to persons without disabilities, to avoid perpetuating difference and disadvantage, and holding mainstream institutions accountable for reaching persons with disabilities. Individualized, targeted approaches are key, but they are key for everyone who needs support, irrespective of where the need for support originates from. This chapter consists of four parts: an introduction with selected key poverty and employment figures for persons with disabilities in OECD countries; a section on the poverty-preventing role of social protection; a section on employability, employment promotion, and poverty traps; and a policy conclusion with focus on the need for rigorous disability mainstreaming.