The effects of income transfers on poverty reduction in people with disabilities in South Korea

Using a nationally representative sample dataset from the 2016 Korean Welfare PanelStudy, we examined the anti-poverty effects of income transfers in people with disabilities. Our findings indicate that in households with a person with a disability, income transfers decreased by 55.9% and 84.8% of the pre-transfer poverty rate and poverty gap, respectively. Before income transfers, households with a person with a disability were 1.94 times more likely to be poor compared to those without a person with a disability. When income transfers were offered, the chance of being poor in the disability group was only 1.11 times higher than that in the non-disability group. Findings from the aggregated data suggest that means-tested income transfers were more effective in reducing poverty levels than social insurance or private income transfers. At the individual level, the provision of means-tested programs was also more likely to decrease the likelihood of experiencing poverty than social insurance and private income transfers.